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Report  on  Unemployment 


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TO  HIS  EXCELLENCY 


Governor  Hiram  W.  Johnson 


BY 

Commission  of  Immi ^ration  and  Housin* 
of  California 


(SUPPLEMENT  TO  FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT) 


DECEMBER  NINTH,  1914 


I  \U.IKi  HNIA 

Si  \  IK  PRINI  ;NG  OFFICE 
1914 


Report  on  Unemployment 


TO  HIS  EXCELLENCY 


Governor  Hiram  W.  Johnson 


Commission  of  Immigration  and  Housing 
of  California 


(SUPPLEMENT  TO  FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT) 


DECEMBER  NINTH,  1914 


CALIFORNIA 

STATE  PRINTING  OFFICE 
1914 


14524 


Commission  of  Immigration  and  Housing  of  California 

UNDERWOOD  BUILDING 
525  MARKET  STREET,  SAN  FRANCISCO 


COMMISSIONERS: 

SIMON  J.  LUBIN,  President,  Sacramento 

RT.  REV.  EDWARD  J.  HANNA,  D.D.,  Vice  President,  San  Francisco 
MRS.  FRANK  A.  GIBSON,  Los  Angeles 
ARTHUR  H.  FLEMING,  Pasadena 

PAUL  SCHARRENBERG,  Secretary,  San  Francisco 


GEO.  L.  BELL, 

Attorney  and  Executive  Officer. 


PREFACE. 

Unemployment,  as  far  as  state  action  is  concerned,  presents  two 
distinct  aspects :  First,  the  immediate  alleviation  of  suffering  and  want, 
a  charity  problem;  second,  the  ultimate  or  industrial  solution,  looking 
toward  the  elimination  of  unemployment.  Our  main  report  deals  with 
the  latter  problem.  But,  since  the  experience  of  the  last  few  winters 
has  taught  us  that  we  may  expect  the  presence  of  great  numbers  of 
destitute,  unemployed  people  in  the  state  during  the  coming  winter, 
we  submit  along  with  this  report  some  brief  suggestions  concerning  the 
former  problem. 


2—14524 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE. 
PREFACE    3 

REPORT     ON    PERMANENT,     OR    INDUSTRIAL,     PROBLEM    OF    UNEM- 
PLOYMENT       5-24 

REPORT  ON  TEMPORARY,  OR  RELIEF,  PROBLEM  OF  UNEMPLOYMENT   67-70 

INDEX  TO  APPENDICES. 


A.      DIGEST  OF  LETTERS  SENT  TO  THE  GOVERNOR 2.5-2 G 

B-  1.      BIBLIOGRAPHY    OF   UNEMPLOYMENT 27 

B-  2.      DIGEST  OF   SEVERAL   BOOKS  ON  UNEMPLOYMENT 28-29 

Summary   of   reports   of   investigations   conducted    by   Commission    of 
Immigration  and  Housing  of  California. 

C-  1.  SUMMARY  OF  REPORT  ON  THE  FLOATING  LABORER  IN  CALI- 
FORNIA    30 

C-  2.  SUMMARY  OF  REPORT  ON  BERRY  PICKING  AND  FRUIT  CAN- 
NING IN  SONOMA  COUNTY 31 

C-  3.      EPITOMIZED    STATEMENT    OF   REPORT    ON    THE    SAND    CREEK 

ROAD   SITUATION   IN   FRESNO   COUNTY 32 

C-  4.  A  DIGEST  OF  A  REPORT  ON  THE  EMPLOYMENT  AGENCY  SIT- 
UATION IN  CALIFORNIA  33-39 

C-  5.  RECOMMENDATIONS  FOR  LEGISLATION  CONCERNING  PRIVATE 

EMPLOYMENT  OFFICES  40-42 

C-  6.  BRIEF  OF  REPORTS  ON  THE  ORANGE  INDUSTRY  OF  CENTRAL 

CALIFORNIA  43 

C-  7.  CONDENSED  STATEMENT  OF  A  REPORT  ON  A  LUMBER  CAMP 

IN  THE  SIERRA  NEVADA  MOUNTAINS 44 

C-  8.      BRIEF  OF  REPORT  ON  ALASKA  SALMON  FISHING  INDUSTRY..          45 

C-  9.  BRIEF  OF  REPORT  ON  SOUTHERN  EUROPEAN  FARMERS  IN 

THE  BAY  REGION  46 

C-10.  STATISTICAL  TABLES  FROM  LIFE  HISTORY  SCHEDULES  SE- 
LECTED AT  RANDOM  AMONG  CASUAL  LABORERS  IN  CALI- 
FORNIA    47-53 

C-ll.  TABULATION  OF  REGISTER  OF  COMPLAINTS  RECEIVED  BY 

THE  COMMISSION  54-56 

C-12.  STATISTICAL  SUMMARY  OF  INSPECTION  OF  801  LABOR  CAMPS 

BY  THE  COMMISSION 57-58 

C-13.  SYNOPSIS  OF  REPORT  ON  THE  LABOR  MARKET  IN  SONOMA 

AND  MENDOCINO  COUNTIES 59-61 

ADDITIONAL  APPENDICES. 


D.  REPORT  ON  EMPLOYMENT  BUREAUS  BY  COMMONWEALTH  CLUB_   62-63 

E.  JOINT  CONGRESSIONAL  RESOLUTION  FOR  THE  APPOINTMENT  OF 

A  NATIONAL  MARKETING  COMMISSION 64 

F.  BRIEF   OF   REPORT   ON   HOME    EDUCATION   BY   THE   COMMISSION 

OF    IMMIGRATION   AND   HOUSING 65 

G.  QUOTATIONS    FROM    ADDRESS    BY    HON.    JOHN    P.    MCLAUGHLIN, 

COMMISSIONER  OF  BUREAU  OF  LABOR  STATISTICS 66 

H.  THE  CHICAGO  PROGRAM  FOR  IMMEDIATE  RELIEF..: 71-72 

I.  REPORT  ON  PLAN  OF  TEMPORARY  RELIEF  BY  COMMONWEALTH 

CLUB     .  73 


REPORT  ON  UNEMPLOYMENT. 


SACRAMENTO,  CALIFORNIA, 

December  9,  1914. 
To  His  Excellency, 

HIRAM  AV.  JOHNSON,  Governor, 
Sacramento,  California. 

DEAR  SIR:  On  January  28,  1914,  you  addressed  to  our  Commission 
a  letter  in  which  you  asked  us  to  direct  our  attention  to  the  problem 
of  unemployment,  with  the  object  in  view  of  suggesting  to  you  what, 
if  any.  remedy  might  be  applied  by  the  State.  From  a  second  letter, 
dated  March  17,  1914,  we  quote : 

"The  problem,  apparently,  is  one  that  will  be  ever  recurring,  increas- 
ing in  intensity  and  acuteness,  and  therefore  I  think  it  the  part  of 
wisdom  for  all  of  us  charged  with  the  administration  of  the  govern- 
ment to  find,  if  we  can,  some  sane  and  rational  solution.  *  *  May  I 
ask  you,  therefore,  *  *  *  to  suggest  what  remedial  measures  may  be 
taken  by  the  government?" 

Upon  receipt  of  your  request,  we  so  arranged  our  work  that  we  might 
submit  some  fairly  comprehensive  report.  The  task  you  assigned  to  us 
fitted  in  admirably  with  our  general  program.  In  its  most  fundamental 
aspect,  the  problem  of  immigration  is  almost  identical  with  that  of 
employment.  Practically  without  exception,  the  newly-arrived  immi- 
grant is  a  man  in  need  of  an  immediate  job.  The  federal  laws  will  not 
permit  him  to  contract  for  work  before  he  is  admitted.  The  moment 
he  comes  among  us,  in  a  very  real  sense  he  is  one  of  our  unemployed. 
Whatever  forces  tend  to  keep  him  out  of  a  job  make  for  his  discontent, 
dissatisfaction,  and  the  likelihood  of  his  becoming  a  public  charge. 
Whatever  factors  incline  to  give  him  an  economic  foothold  assure  his 
becoming  a  useful  citizen.  In  fairness  to  the  immigrant,  assuming  that 
the  federal  officers  at  the  port  of  entry  have  done  well  their  task  of 
segregation,  it  must  be  said  that  he  falls  within  the  class  of  the  employ- 
able, rather  than  within  either  of  the  other  two  groups  completing  the 
army  of  unemployed,  the  unemployable  and  the  vagrant.  Further- 
more, the  work  we  have  done  directly  among  immigrants  in  cur  com- 
plaint bureau  and  the  extensive  investigations  in  municipal  housing 
and  among  labor  camps  throughout  the  State,  have  given  us  many 
sidelights  upon  the  problem  of  unemployment. 

Field   of    Investigation. 

Over  and  above  this  general  information,  we  have  extended  our  study 
into  three  fields: 

(1)  You  were  kind  enough  to  turn  over  to  us  some  thirty  letters 
addressed  to  you  on  this  subject  of  unemployment.  These  we  have 


6  COMMISSION   OF   IMMIGRATION    AND   HOUSING. 

considered  carefully,  embodying  some  of  the  suggestions  made  therein 
in  our  final  recommendations.  A  digest  of  the  most  important  letters 
appears  in  Appendix  A  to  this  report.  (Pages  25-26.) 

(2)  We  have  consulted  the  best  available  material  on  the  subject, 
giving  both  Eastern  and  European  experience.     It  would  be  blindness 
to  ignore  what  older  states  have  discovered  through  many  well  thought 
out  experiments.    Appendix  B  gives  a  bibliography  of  the  most  helpful 
sources  with  a  digest  of  the  more  important  conclusions.    (Pages  27-29.) 

(3)  In  cooperation  with  the  United  States  Commission  on  Industrial 
Relations,  we  have  conducted  an  intensive  investigation  within  our  own 
State,  under  the  following  headings: 

(a)  Study  of  special  localities  to  show  methods  of  obtaining 
labor ; 

(6)  Study  of  several  hundred  life  histories  of  migratory  and 
casual  workers  to  learn  causes  of  unemployment  and  methods  of 
obtaining  jobs; 

(c)  Study  of  available  material  in  United  States  census,  report 
of  United  States  Immigration  Commission,  report  of  State  Com- 
missioner of  Labor  Statistics,  reports  of  labor  unions  in  California ; 

(d)  Investigation   of   eighty-one   private   employment   agencies 
within  the  state  to  determine  their  real  status  and  value. 

The  results  of  our  own  investigations  are  epitomized  in  Appendix  C. 
(Pages  30-61.) 

Conclusions   and    Recommendations. 

As  a  result  of  all  this  study,  we  are  prepared  to  submit  for  your 
consideration  these  recommendations,  which  we  explain  and  defend 
in  the  following  pages: 

(1)  The  creation  of  a  state  bureau  of  labor  exchanges,  under  a  rep- 
resentative board  or  commission,  with  an  annual  appropriation  of  not 
less  than  $75,000;  this  bureau  to  have  branch  offices  in  the  centers  of 
population  to  gather  and  disseminate  labor  intelligence,  to  be  a  clearing 
house — bringing  the  man  to  the  job,  and  the  job  to  the  man ;  the  value 
of  the  bureau  to  be  judged  by  both  the  extent  and  the  thoroughness 
of  its  accomplishments.     The  bureau  should  cooperate  with  the  Railway 
Commission  to  provide  special  low  transportation  rates  to  those  for 
whom  it  finds  positions ;  this  bureau  should  have  authority  to  regulate 
private   and   philanthropic   employment   agencies,   to   issue   licenses  to 
them  and  to  revoke  same  at  pleasure. 

In  the  light  of  the  experience  of  last  winter,  and  of  the  probable 
happenings  of  the  season  we  are  now  entering,  we  strongly  urge  the 
wisdom  of  passing  this  act  as  an  emergency  measure  as  early  as  possible 
during  the  first  session  of  the  coming  legislature. 

(2)  The  enacting  of  more  stringent  laws  for  the  regulation  of  pri- 
vate employment  agencies. 


REPORT   ON   PROBLEM    OF   UNEMPLOYMENT.  I 

(3)  The  passing  of  definite  laws  governing  sanitation  and  housing 
in  labor  camps,  based  upon  our  experience  during  the  past  year;  the 
enforcement  of  these  laws  to  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  a  bureau  of 
camp  sanitation  and  housing,  under  our  Commission,  the  Bureau  of 
Labor  Statistics,  or  under  a  reorganized  State  Board  of  Health;  with 
a  special  appropriation  of  $25,000  per  year. 

(4)  The  complete  revision  of  our  housing  laws,  broadened  to  take 
in   family   dwellings   as  well   as  tenements   and  lodging  houses;   the 
enforcement  to  be  in  the  hands  of  a  bureau  of  housing,  under  our 
commission  or  under  a  reorganized  State  Board  of  Health;  with  a 
special  appropriation  of  $20,000  per  year. 

(5)  The  appointment  of  a  special  committee  or  designation  of  some 
(\isting  commission  to  conduct  an  extended  investigation  into — 

(a)  The  wisdom  of  devising  some  scheme  for  out-of-work  insur- 
ance that  will  not  have  the  effect  of  drawing  into  our  state  the 
unemployed  of  the  nation; 

(&)  The  best  methods  for  dealing  with  the  unemployable  and 
the  vagrant; 

(c)  Possible  schemes  for  regularizing  and  dovetailing  private 
enterprise,  not  in  cities  alone  but  in  the  rural  districts  as  well, 
so  that  the  burden  may  be  justly  and  fairly  borne  by  the  state  as 
a  whole ; 

(d)  Ways  and  means  for  providing  public  work  during  periods 
of  deprevssion. 

(6)  The  encouraging  of  some  mode  of  rural  credits  along  the  lines 
of  European  experience,  to  make  farming  more  attractive  and  more 
profitable ;  and  the  creation  of  rural  organization  after  the  type  of  the 
German  Landwirtshaftsrat,  with  the  same  object  in  view. 

(7)  Laws  that  will  make  more  difficult  fraud  and  misrepresentation 
in  the  sale  of  rural  lands,  and  that  will  bring  to  speedier  justice  the 
violators  of  the  same  and  give  equity  to  the  exploited. 

(8)  A  state  land  bureau,  preferably  cooperating  with  the  University 
of  California,  to  supply  prospective  purchasers  with  all  needed  informa- 
tion regarding  the  best  economic  uses  of  land,  its  value,  approaches  to 
market,  etc. 

The   Problem. 

In  your  letter  of  March  17,  1914,  quoted  above,  you  say  that  the 
problem  of  unemployment  "apparently  is  one  that  will  be  ever  recur- 
ring, increasing  in  intensity  and  acuteness,  and,  therefore,  I  think 
it  the  part  of  wisdom  *  *  *  to  find,  if  we  can,  some  sane  and  rational 
solution."  You  have  untold  evidence  from  the  highest  authorities  to 
support  this  view.  Mr.  Oscar  Straus,  when  Secretary  of  Commerce 
and  Labor,  said:  "The  question  of  unemployment  is  one  of  the  inci- 

3—14524 


8  COMMISSION   OF   IMMIGRATION    AND   HOUSING. 

dents  of  the  great  commercial  development  of  our  age.  It  is  the  reverse 
side  of  the  shield  of  prosperity,  if  you  please.  What  the  remedy  should 
be  is  the  great  problem  of  our  civilization."  Irregularity  of  employ- 
ment, in  the  opinion  of  Mr.  Louis  Brandeis,  is  "the  worst  and  most 
extended  of  industrial  evils."  Mr.  Cyril  Jackson,  one  of  England's 
foremost  students  of  this  question,  says:  "Of  the  social  problems  of 
the  moment,  unemployment  is  the  most  intense  in  its  claim  upon  public 
attention.  *  *  *  Whereas,  a  generation  ago  unemployment  was  regarded 
as  the  result  of  economic  forces  beyond  the  control  of  the  state,  today 
the  prevalence  of  unemployment  is  attributed  to  defects  in  the  organ- 
ization of  industrial  life  which  it  is  the  business  of  statesmen  to 
rectify."  A  still  more  eminent  English  authority,  W.  H.  Beveridge, 
holds  that  "the  problem  of  unemployment  lies,  in  a  very  special  sense, 
at  the  root  of  most  other  social  problems.  *  *  Reasonable  security  of 
employment  for  the  bread-winner  is  the  basis  of  all  private  duties  and 
all  sound  social  action." 

The  seriousness  of  the  problem  of  unemployment  did  not  appeal  to 
us  in  America  until  after  men  in  Europe  had  devoted  to  it  years  of 
study.  It  is  easy  to  understand  why.  Until  recently,  overcrowding 
and  economic  stress  found  relief  in  the  mandate,  "Go  west,  young 
man."  But  now  we  have  come  up  against  the  limits  of  the  West, 
which  rudely  at  last  have  turned  us  back  to  face  our  problem,  to  solve 
it,  if  we  would  not  fall  before  it.  Observe  to  what  extent  our  own 
state  is  recognized  as  an  outlet;  whereas,  in  the  decade  1900-1910  the 
population  of  the  United  States  as  a  whole  increased  21  per  cent,  Cali- 
fornia showed  a  growth  of  over  60  per  cent.  We  fear  that  the  economic 
power  to  absorb  hardly  kept  pace  with  this  increase.  We  fear  that 
there  is  a  likelihood  that  the  census  figures  do  not  tell  the  whole  story, 
for  it  is  improbable  that  they  enumerate  all  of  the  floating  population, 
of  which  the  number  is  growing  year  by  year. 

California  offers  peculiar  attractions  to  the  man  in  the  Eastern 
States  or  in  Europe  who,  for  one  reason  or  another,  desires  to  migrate. 
It  is  the  farthest  goal  of  him  to  whom  "go  west"  becomes  an  active 
motive.  It  is  the  natural  destination  of  him  who  merely  is  carried 
with  the  stream  of  migration.  Our  kindly  climate  and  beneficent 
hospitality  are  known  to  the  peoples  of  the  world.  "You  cannot  freeze 
to  death  in  California;  you  cannot  starve  to  death  in  California."  is 
a  by-word  among  the  migratory  workers  of  the  country.  And  they 
have  sensed  the  truth. 

And  yet,  against  this  there  is  the  fact  that  in  this  comparatively  new 
state'  of  ours  we  hardly  have  had  time  to  adjust  conditions  to  absorb 
with  economy  all  these  new-comers.  Industry  is  but  meagerly  developed, 
and  nowhere  does  it  exist  on  a  large  scale.  During  the  past  few  years, 
extensive  grain  ranches  have  given  way  to  intensively  cultivated  fruit 


KEPORT   ON   PROBLEM    OP   UNEMPLOYMENT.  9 

farms,  which  require  large  numbers  of  men  for  but  short  periods.  The 
problem  of  the  migratory  and  casual  worker  is  accentuated  here  prob- 
ably more  than  in  any  other  part  of  the  United  States. 

A  Clearing- House   Needed. 

AVe  turn  our  attention  first  then  to  the  migratory  and  casual  worker, 
who  is  here  in  response  to  a  demand  that  is  a  concomitant  of  the 
status  of  industry  and  agriculture  in  our  state.  When  he  has  com- 
pleted a  job,  where  is  he  to  look  for  another?  Today  he  may  (a) 
answer  an  advertisement  in  some  newspaper;  (&)  wander  from  place 
to  place  seeking  employment;  or  (c)  apply  to  a  private  employment 
agent  for  a  job.  If  he  reads  a  newspaper  advertisement,  how  is  he  to 
know  that  the  demand  has  not  been  satisfied  over  and  over  again? 
Indeed,  how  is  he  to  know  that  the  purpose  of  the  advertisement  is 
not  to  flood  the  local  market  with  men,  to  multiply  the  fees  to  the  agent 
and  keep  down  wages? 

A  Valencia  orange  district  several  months  ago  sent  out  through  the 
press  a  pitiful  appeal  for  labor  long  after  it  had  all  the  men  it  could 
employ.  An  employment  agent,  with  branches  throughout  the  state, 
persists  in  advertising  in  the  San  Francisco  "Examiner"  for  cotton 
pickers  to  go  to  the  Imperial  Valley  long  after  the  demand  is  fully  met. 
Then  there  is  the  problem  of  transportation — a  very  serious  matter  for 
a  low-paid  casual  worker,  for  he  cannot  beat  his  way  unless  he  be 
unusually  agile.  Closely  allied  to  the  newspaper  advertisement  is  the 
placard  posted  broadcast,  such  as  that  used  by  certain  hop  growers 
to  get  pickers  for  the  1913  season. 

If  the  man  wanders  from  place  to  place,  from  door  to  door,  see  what 
a  waste  of  time  is  involved.  The  general  response  to  the  applicant  is, 
"Come  back  in  a  week  or  ten  days."  What  is  he  to  do  meanwhile? 
(See  Appendices  C-l  and  C-2.) 

But  he  can  resort  to  the  private  employment  agent.  The  uutrust- 
worthiness  of  private  agencies  is  now  a  matter  of  common  knowledge. 
The  State  of  Washington,  on  that  account,  has  just  legislated  them  out 
of  existence.  We  have  recently  made  a  careful  investigation  of  81  of 
the  247  licensed  agencies  in  the  state.  Of  the  81,  our  investigators  give 
it  as  their  opinion  that  52,  or  64  per  cent,  are  of  doubtful  honesty; 
and  that  51,  or  64  per  cent,  are  of  doubtful  efficiency.  Forty-two 
agents  admitted  the  prevalence  of  the  following  abuses:  illegal  reten- 
tion of  fees,  misrepresentation,  shipment  where  there  is  not  work, 
advertising  where  there  is  no  job,  splitting  fees  with  foremen  (see 
Appendix  C-3),  extortion,  shipment  of  unfit  applicants,  operations  in 
connection  with  a  saloon ;  and  acknowledged  these  abuses  on  the  part 
of  the  employer :  misrepresentation,  giving  orders  to  several  agents  at 
the  same  time,  retaining  fee  collected  from  employees.  Needless  to 
say.  these  42  employment  agents  claimed  severally  that  their  offices 


10  COMMISSION   OF    IMMIGRATION   AND    HOUSING. 

were  innocent  of  such  practices.  Of  the  39  agents  who  professed 
ignorance  of  any  abuse,  we  must  say  that  we  suspect  their  trustworthi- 
ness as  witnesses,  or  at  least  their  knowledge  of  conditions.  (See 
Appendix  C-4.) 

In  his  report  of  July  1,  1913,  the  Chief  of  the  Division  of  Informa- 
tion of  the  Federal  Bureau  of  Immigration  said:  "A  federal  weather 
bureau,  receiving  its  information  from  many  sources  throughout  the 
world,  is  enabled  to  inform  the  inhabitants  of  the  United  States  of 
coming  storms  and  other  changes  in  the  wreather.  The  work  of  the 
weather  bureau  was  not  deemed  necessary  at  first  and  not  appreciated 
until  long  after  that  bureau  was  in  operation.  It  is  just  as  important 
to  all  the  people  of  the  United  States,  and  more  especially  the  working 
people,  that  changes  or  coming  changes  in  industrial  life  should  be 
speedily  and  accurately  recorded."  (p.  161.) 

After  two  years'  experience  through  the  Bureau  of  Industries  and 
Immigration,  the  Commissioner  of  Labor  of  New  York  State  strongly 
recommends  the  establishment  of  state  free  labor  agencies  and  the 
creation  of  a  state  bureau  to  deal  with  the  matter  of  the  regulation  of 
private  employment  agencies.  (12th  Annual  Report,  Xew  York  Com- 
missioner of  Labor,  p.  150.) 

In  the  report  of  the  New  York  Commission  of  Immigration  made  to 
the  legislature  in  1909  after  an  exhaustive  investigation,  we  read, 
"It  would  seem  axiomatic  that  some  means  should  be  devised  by  which 
these  laborers  in  a  state  of  enforced  idleness  might  be  informed  of  the 
opportunities  which  await  them  in  other  parts  of  the  state  and  country 
where  employment  can  be  found."  (p.  130.) 

On  March  21,  1914,  the  Massachusetts  Commission  on  Immigration 
made  its  report.  The  commission  had  this  to  say  on  the  matter  of 
state  free  employment  offices:  "The  economic  waste  that  results  from 
the  failure  to  offer  the  immigrant  the  guidance  he  needs  in  obtaining 
employment  has  never  been  appreciated.  *  [  There  is  also  the  eco- 
nomic waste  that  comes  when  the  foreigner,  skilled  in  a  trade  in  his 
home  country,  finds  it  impossible  to  follow  that  trade  here.  *  *  *  The 
-first  step  toward  the  reduction  of  the  evils  of  the  present  system  of 
distribution  is  a  state  employment  agency,  *  *  which  shall  make 
a  comprehensive  study  of  the  labor  market,  shall  give  special  attention 
to  the  casual  labor  problem,  shall  do  the  practical  work  of  placing  the 
individual  man  in  the  individual  job,  and  shall  develop  a  follow-up 
system,  so  that  subsequent  work  shall  be  increasingly  efficient.  *  *  *  An 
employment  bureau  should  be  created  *  *  and  placed  in  charge  of 
a  supervisor  of  employment,  who  should  be  especially  qualified  to 
develop  this  work."  (pp.  47-51.) 

On  February  25,  1914,  the  Commission  of  Immigration  of  New  Jersey 
made  its  report.  Concerning  the  need  of  establishing  state  free  employ- 


REPORT   ON   PROBLEM    OF   UNEMPLOYMENT.  11 

inent  agencies,  the  commission  said:  "It  often  happens  that  unemploy- 
ment exists  in  one  part  of  a  state,  while  demands  for  labor  in  another 
.section  are  unfilled.  This  is  due  to  improper  coordination  between 
workers  and  jobs.  The  man  without  a  job  and  the  job  needing  the 
man  must  be  brought  together,  and  only  a  central  information  agency, 
such  as  the  state  can  furnish,  is  able  to  do  this. 

"The  private  individual  cannot  go  to  all  the  factories,  as  this  involves 
a  waste  of  time  and  money.  Nor  can  he  afford  to  register  at  all  of 
Hie  agencies.  It  frequently  happens  that  men  are  registered  at  one 
agency  while  positions  are  awaiting  at  another.  Employers,  on  the 
other  hand,  cannot  apply  to  all  of  the  private  agencies  in  the  state  for 
their  help.  In  New  Jersey  there  are  approximately  200  of  these 
agencies. 

"The  public  agencies,  properly  managed,  serve  as  clearing  houses  for 
both  employer  and  employee  and  save  the  time  of  both.  Figures  in 
New  York  State  indicate  that  nearly  forty  per  cent  of  all  workers  are 
out  of  employment  at  some  time  during  the  year,  owing  to  the  seasonal 
occupations  and  lack  of  information  of  trade  conditions.  The  state 
agency,  properly  conducted,  will  eliminate  a  considerable  amount  of 
this  unemployment. 

"Private  agencies  may  find  men  jobs,  but  they  can  never  perform 
the  larger  function  of  distribution  agencies.  Only  a  central  agency, 
municipal  or  state,  can  serve  this  purpose."  (p.  66.) 

William  AT.  Leiserson,  Superintendent  of  the  Wisconsin  State 
Employment  Office,  says  of  the  activities  of  that  office:  "The  Milwaukee 
office  is  the  only  one  located  in  a  city  large  enough  to  permit  of  great 
expansion.  During  the  first  year  its  business  was  increased  almost 
four-fold  over  preceding  years,  when  it  was  conducted  as  the  majority 
of  employment  offices  in  the  United  States  have  been  managed.  Appli- 
cations for  employment  increased  from  6,300  to  23,000;  help  wanted, 
from  6,200  to  29,000;  and  persons  referred  to  positions,  from  6,000  to 
24,000.  Of  the  24,000  referred,  it  was  positively  ascertained  that 
11,400  had  actually  been  hired.  During  the  second  year  the  business 
increased  over  the  first  by  about  40  per  cent.  The  cost  per  verified 
position  secured  the  first  year  was  60  cents.  The  second  year  it  was 
less  than  50  cents.  We  shall  not  be  satisfied  until  this  has  been  much 
further  reduced.  Our  other  three  free  employment  offices  are  located 
in  cities  with  population  of  less  than  45,000.  While  they  have  not 
shown  such  remarkable  results,  they  have  substantially  increased  their 
business.'' 

Free  Public   Labor  Exchanges. 

If  we  would  be  of  service,  then,  to  the  great  number  of  our  migratory 
and  casual  workers,  we  must  devise  some  machinery  for  obtaining  im- 
mediate knowledge  of  opportunity  for  labor,  and  then  spread  that  infor- 


]2  COMMISSION   OF   IMMIGRATION   AND    HOUSING. 

mation  without  charge  when  and  where  it  will  reach  those  out  of 
work ;  then  we  must  gather  data  as  to  those  unemployed,  showing  their 
experience,  ability,  trustworthiness,  etc.,  and  put  it  within  reach  of 
prospective  employers.  In  this  field,  private  enterprise  has  broken 
down  completely.  The  multiplicity  of  private  employment  agencies 
complicates  the  situation;  there  is  no  one  place  to  which  a  man  might 
apply  to  obtain  a  list  of  available  jobs;  it  is  conceivable  that  a  man 
might  register  with  one  agent  while  his  job  is  in  the  hands  of  another 
agent  twenty  or  thirty  feet  away.  Private  agencies  must  charge  fees, 
which  the  most  needy  are  hardly  in  position  to  pay,  and  which  rise  and 
fall  with  the  increase  and  decrease  in  the  demand  for  positions.  The 
fee  is  an  inducement  to  encourage  conspiracy  between  agent  and  job- 
boss,  resulting  in  the  ridiculous  labor  turnover  we  witness  in  many 
occupations.  We  believe  that  private  agencies  should  be  further  regu- 
lated and  have  made  certain  suggestions  for  legislation  along  this  line 
in  Appendix  C-5.  However,  regulation  will  only  curb  flagrant  abuse, 
it  will  not  supply  that  one  absolute  requisite — a  common  clearing  house 
of  labor  intelligence.  Private  agencies  are  competitive;  it  is  part  of 
the  game  for  one  to  keep  his  knowledge  from  the  others. 

It  is  to  the  advantage  of  the  man  out  of  work,  of  the  employer,  and 
of  the  public  at  large  that  friction  be  removed  between  the  man  and 
the  job.  Knowledge  of  demand  and  of  supply,  in  its  most  helpful  form, 
can  be  supplied  only  by  the  state.  This  is  as  legitimately  a  piece  of 
public  work  as  is  the  supplying  of  weather  reports,  crop  statistics,  soil 
surveys,  knowledge  of  foreign  markets,  methods  of  cultivation,  and  the 
like.  We  therefore  strongly  recommend,  as  a  first  step  in  attacking 
the  problem  of  unemployment,  the  establishment  of  a  state  bureau  of 
labor  exchanges  under  a  representative  board  or  commission,  with  an 
appropriation  of  at  least  $75,000  a  year.  There  should  be  branch  offices 
in  the  centers  of  population.  The  bureau  should  be  given  facilities  for 
providing  low  fares.  Supervision  and  regulation  of  private  and  philan- 
thropic agencies,  with  power  of  issuing  and  revoking  licenses,  should 
come  under  this  bureau. 

The  act  to  create  free  public  labor  exchanges  in  England  was  passed 
in  1909.  At  the  expiration  of  five  years,  there  were  430  employment 
exchanges  in  operation.  These  exchanges  with  their  branches  are  so 
distributed  that  any  man  out  of  work  can  file  his  application  for  work 
by  traveling  not  more  than  five  miles.  This  same  convenience  is  at  the 
disposal  of  the  employer. 

Germany  has  between  400  and  500  municipal  exchanges  which  find 
jobs  for  over  a  million  men  and  women  a  year. 


REPORT   ON   PROBLEM    OF   UNEMPLOYMENT.  13 

Under  a   Representative   Board. 

The  bureau  should  be  under  a  commission,  the  members  of  which 
represent  labor,  the  employer,  and  the  general  public.  Only  then  can 
it  be  successful.  A  labor  transaction  involves  two  elements — the  appli- 
cant and  the  employer.  Unless  the  bureau  possess  the  unqualified  con- 
fidence of  both,  it  is  doomed  to  failure  from  the  start.  A  one-man 
bureau  could  not  win  this  confidence ;  supervised  by  a  representative  of 
labor,  it  would  be  suspected  by  the  employer ;  directed  by  a  nominee  of 
the  employers  it  would  not  be  patronized  by  the  men.  (See  Appendix  D.) 

German  experience  has  emphasized  the  wisdom  of  having  this  repre- 
sentative governing  body.  "Perhaps  the  most  important  feature  of 
the  organization  of  the  bureaus  and  of  the  composition  of  the  com- 
mittees in  charge  of  them  is  that  the  bureaus  are  in  almost  all  cases 
controlled  by  representatives  of  the  employing  and  employed  classes 
in  equal  numbers.  *  *  *  This  is  considered  so  important  that  they 
have  used  or  adapted  the  word  '  Paritatische '  to  express  the  idea,  and 
so  universally  is  this  characteristic  found  that  the  'Paritatische  Bureau' 
is  the  term  very  frequently  used  to  denominate  a  public  employment 
bureau.  *  *  *  It  is  considered  of  prime  importance  that  they  be  con- 
trolled and  managed  by  representative  committees  in  which  labor  and 
capital  can  have  equal  confidence.  *  !  *  It  is  for  this  reason  that, 
although  the  trade  unionists  of  Germany  commenced  by  opposing  and 
usually  bitterly  denouncing  the  public  employment  bureaus,  they  now 
increasingly  make  use  of  them  and  have  their  representatives  on  the 
committees  in  charge  of  them.  In  many  cases  also  the  unions  which 
formerly  maintained  employment  bureaus  of  their  own  for  their  dif- 
ferent crafts  have  handed  over  these  bureaus  to  the  public  bureaus." 
(What  is  Done  for  the  Unemployed  in  European  Countries;  W.  D.  P. 
Bliss,  Bulletin  of  the  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor  No.  76,  May,  1908, 
pp.  773-774.) 

With  Sufficient  Appropriation. 

Then  the  appropriation  should  be  sufficiently  large  to  cover  the  state. 
The  gathering,  synchronizing,  and  disseminating  the  necessary  data  is 
an  expensive  task.  Unless  the  work  be  done  thoroughly,  it  is  better 
that  it  be  not  attempted  at  all.  The  amount  we  suggest,  $75,000,  is 
only  a  small  part  of  the  total  fees  annually  paid  out  to  private  agents. 
For  the  year  ending  March  31,  1912,  194,400  jobs  were  reported  by 
licensed  agencies,  and  fees  totaling  $403,064.29  were  collected,  accord- 
ing to  the  last  published  report  of  the  State  Commissioner  of  Labor 
Statistics. 

At  the  First  National  Conference  on  unemployment  held  in  New 
York  City  during  February,  1914,  William  H.  Farley,  Superintendent 
of  the  Rhode  Island  Free  Employment  Office  (Report,  page  247),  said: 
"The  state  legislatures  will  devote  an  enormous  amount  of  money  to 


14  COMMISSION    OP    IMMIGRATION    AND    HOUSING. 

state  prisons,  but  they  devote  a  very  small  amount  to  running  public 
employment  offices.  You  can  readily  understand  that  such  an  office 
can  not  a*mount  to  a  great  deal  unless  it  has  the  money  to  fight — to 
fight  the  private  employment  office.  Men  who  have  not  studied  the 
question  do  not  know  for  a  minute  the  hardships  that  are  created  and 
the  injustice  that  is  done  by  the  private  employment  agencies.  Unless 
the  legislature  will  give  you  enough  money  to  run  it  right.  I  would 
advise  you  not  to  open  a  state  bureau. ' ' 

The  New  Jersey  Commission  of  Immigration  has  this  to  say  regarding 
the  wisdom  of  granting  sufficient  appropriation  to  state  free  employ- 
ment agencies:  "The  impression  is  quite  general  that  state  agencies 
have  been  a  failure.  This  apparent  failure  has  been  due  in  no  small 
measure  to  the  smallness  of  the  appropriation.  Five  states  have  limited 
the  staff  of  employees  to  a  superintendent  and  assistant,  and  have  set 
the  salary  of  the  superintendent  at  $1,200.  Five  others  have  placed 
the  maximum  salary  at  $1,500.  Only  a  pittance  has  been  allowed  for 
the  office  expenses  and  for  what  is  most  important,  advertising  and 
canvassing  firms  for  positions  and  bringing  the  work  of  the  agency  to 
the  public  notice.  Colorado  has  $666  available  for  each  of  its  three 
offices.  Connecticut  has  $2,500  remaining  for  expenses  for  four  offices 
after  salaries  are  paid.  Oklahoma  has  $300  for  the  expenses  of  each 
of  its  offices.  For  the  small  consideration  offered,  it  has  been  im- 
possible to  secure  men  capable  both  of  organizing  such  an  important 
piece  of  wrork  and  of  securing  the  confidence  of  the  employing  public. 
In  several  states  the  sums  available  for  rental  and  equipment  have  com- 
pelled superintendents  to  utilize  dingy,  unsuitable  quarters  without 
separate  facilities  for  men  and  women.  As  a  result,  self-respecting 
workers  preferred  to  patronize  commercial  agencies,  even  though  a 
fee  were  charged.  In  other  instances  the  employment  work  has  been 
carried  on  by  the  office  force  in  the  department  of  labor  and  there  has 
been  no  way  of  developing  the  work.  In  Kansas  the  law  formerly 
provided  that  the  first  and  second  class  cities,  under  the  supervision  of 
the  Director  of  Free  Employment  Bureaus,  should  open  and  conduct 
such  agencies,  but  that  by  joint  resolution  of  the  mayor  and  city  council 
these  agencies  may  be  dispensed  with.  As  a  result,  the  only  work 
carried  on  was  that  done  in  the  office  of  the  director.  By  a  statute  just 
passed,  the  employment  work  is  to  be  carried  on  by  a  clerk  in  the  new 
Department  of  Labor  and  Industry,  for  whom  a  salary  of  $1.000  is 
provided."  (p.  67.) 

Transportation  at  Low  Rates. 

Often,  the  knowledge  of  the  existence  of  a  job  does  not  place  the 
applicant  where  it  is  available.  Distances  within  our  state  are  great, 
and  transportation  is  expensive.  In  several  European  countries  special 
low  rates  are  given  migratory  workers  upon  order  from  the  labor  ex- 


REPORT    OK   PROBLEM    OF    UNEMPLOYMENT.  15 

.  In  Germany,  the  state  railways  grant  to  all  workmen  seeking 
work  a  50  per  cent  reduction  on  third-class  fare  (making  it  about  half 
a  cent  per  mile),  provided  that  orders  for  this  are  given  workmen  by 
the  public  employment  bureaus.  Stuttgart  in  1904  gave  out  1.960  such 
orders.  We  suggest  the  wisdom  of  enabling  the  proposed  bureau  to 
!•  n. vide  low  fares,  by  arrangement  with  the  railway  companies. 

Supervision    of    Private    Agencies. 

Having  representatives  throughout  the  state,  this  bureau  should 
logically  be  given  supervision  over  all  private  employment  agencies, 
with  authority  to  issue  and  revoke  licenses.  If  experience  should  show 
that  the  competition  of  public  exchanges  along  with  power  to  regulate 
would  not  eliminate  the  prevailing  abuses,  then  we  should  be  prepared 
to  recommend  that  private  agencies  be  prohibited  by  law  from  receiving 
fees  from  applicants,  as  the  State  of  Washington  has  recently  done. 

We  fully  realize  that  a  system  of  state  labor  exchanges  alone  would 
not  solve  completely  the  unemployment  problem.  In  one  sense,  they 
could  not  create  work.  Yet.  in  the  true  economic  sense,  by  bringing 
man  and  job  together  through  dispelling  the  ignorance  one  possesses 
in  reference  to  the  other,  they  would  perform  a  service  that  practically 
amounts  to  the  creation  of  jobs. 

A  further  pertinent  point  in  this  connection  is  the  fact  that  the  state, 
through  the  medium  of  the  proposed  bureau,  would  be  in  a  position  to 
warn  men  not  to  come  into  the  state  when  there  is  no  work  or  demand 
for  labor.  At  present  there  is  no  central  agency  equipped  to  perform 
this  service.  Furthermore,  the  bureau  could  bring  official  pressure  to 
hear  on  large  corporations,  who  employ  great  numbers,  to  prevent  them 
from  importing  labor  from  other  states  when  the  supply  is  sufficient 
within  the  state  to  meet  the  demand.  This  latter  suggestion  has  been 
put  into  practice  in  a  local  way.  by  the  authorities  in  the  city  of  Los 
Amreles.  and  the  employers  have  so  generally  cooperated  that  the  effort 
has  been  successful. 

We  would  not  have  it  understood  that  state  labor  exchanges  would 
be  of  value  only  to  the  migratory  and  casual  worker.  There  are  thou- 
sands of  others  who  to-day  have  to  depend  upon  the  newspapers,  tramp- 
ing, or  private  employment  agencies.  To  these,  the  state  exchange 
would  prove  of  incalculable  service. 

A   Basis  for   Unemployment    Insurance. 

A  by-product  of  the  centralized  exchange  would  be  a  tendency  to 
raise  the  wages  of  the  most  poorly  paid  among  our  working  population. 
The  great  number  of  private  agencies  practically  means  a  multiplicity 
of  labor  markets.  Meeting  disappointment  after  disappointment,  the 
applicant  is  likely  to  accept  the  first  job  offered,  no  matter  how  low 
the  wauv.  A  properly  organized  and  thoroughly  efficient  exchange 

4—14524 


16  COMMISSION   OF   IMMIGRATION   AND   HOUSING. 

would  list  all  available  jobs.  The  applicant  could  then  choose  the 
most  favorable.  The  wage  would  then  tend  to  the  true  equilibrium 
resulting  from  demand  and  supply,  and  would  no  longer  be  able  to  hide 
behind  ignorance  as  it  can  to-day. 

Furthermore,  the  data  gathered  by  such  an  organization  would  supply 
the  material  upon  which  we  could  build  an  intelligent  judgment  as  to 
the  practicability  of  unemployment  insurance.  A  labor  exchange  is 
a  necessary  concomitant  of  an  insurance  scheme,  enabling  men  to  be 
placed  in  jobs  with  the  least  possible  delay.  For  the  same  reason,  it 
supplies  the  work  test  during  periods  of  depression  for  those  claiming 
public  aid. 

In  closing  under  this  heading  of  state  free  labor  exchanges,  it  is 
well  to  quote  from  an  address  made  by  William  M.  Leiserson,  Super- 
intendent of  Wisconsin  Employment  Offices,  before  the  First  National 
Conference  on  Unemployment  held  in  New  York  City  in  February, 
1914: 

"Public  employment  offices  are  now  in  existence  in  eighteen  of  the 
United  States,  in  about  sixty  cities.  The  circumstances  which  led  to 
their  establishment  have  in  the  main  been  three:  the  abuses  of  private 
employment  agencies,  the  lack  of  farm  labor  in  agricultural  states,  and 
the  presence  of  great  numbers  of  unemployed  wage-earners  in  the 
industrial  centers.  To  these  must  be  added  the  example  of  foreign 
governments  and  the  growing  belief  that  it  is  the  duty  of  the  state  to 
prevent  unnecessary  idleness.  Whatever  the  reasons  for  the  establish- 
ment of  the  offices,  the  results  have  in  most  cases  been  the  same.  The 
administration  has  been  placed  in  the  hands  of  people  unfamiliar  with 
their  design  and  purpose.  These  officials  have  either  mismanaged  the 
offices  so  that  they  had  to  be  discontinued  or  else  they  performed  their 
duties  perfunctorily  and  in  a  wholly  ineffective  manner. 

"This,  in  short,  has  been  the  history  of  public  employment  offices  in 
the  United  States.  *  *  *  The  lesson  is  obvious.  If  we  want  suc- 
cessful public  employment  offices  we  must  follow  the  example  of  the 
larger  German  cities,  and  put  people  in  charge  of  them  who  under- 
stand the  business,  who  know  its  principles  and  its  technique,  and  who 
will  work  with  vigor  and  energy  to  make  their  offices  successful. 

"The  function  of  an  employment  office  is  best  expressed  by  the 
British  term  'labor  exchange.'  Exchange  implies  a  market.  It  is  an 
organization  of  the  labor  market,  just  as  the  stock  market,  the  hog 
market,  the  wheat  market  are  organized  to  facilitate  the  buying  of 
these  products.  *  *  *  The  labor  market  is  still  in  the  peddling 
stage.  While  dealing  in  almost  all  the  important  articles  of  trade  is 
now  systematically  organized,  with  exchanges  and  salesmen  and  trade 
papers,  labor  must  still  be  peddled  from  door  to  door  by  each  individual 
worker. 


REPORT   ON   PROBLEM   OF   UNEMPLOYMENT.  17 

"Employers  will  not  patronize  a  trade  union  office  except  when  the 
trade  is  completely  organized.  *  *  *  Wage-earners,  on  the  other  hand, 
will  not  go  in  great  numbers  to  an  agency  maintained  by  employers 
because  of  its  possible  use  for  blacklisting,  breaking  strikes  and  beating 
down  wages.  If  there  is  any  one  condition  that  is  basic  in  the -success- 
ful management  of  an  employment  office,  it  is  that  it  must  be  impartial 
as  between  employers  and  workers  in  their  struggles  over  conditions  of 
employment.  *  *  *  The  gathering  and  the  distribution  (of  informa- 
tion) must  be  absolutely  impartial.  Wage-earners  and  'employers 
must  have  faith  in  the  accuracy  and  reliability  of  the  information. 

"As  part  of  an  effective  administrative  machine,  a  system  of  repre- 
sentation of  the  interests  involved  should  be  worked  out  in  order  to 
insure  confidence  and  impartiality.  *  *  *  At  the  head  of  the  public 
employment  offices  a  person  should  be  placed  who  understands  not 
only  the  technique  of  the  business  but  also  the  principles  on  which 
the  offices  are  based,  and  their  relation  to  the  whole  industrial  life  of 
the  state,  and  to  the  pressing  problem  of  unemployment. 

"It  is  because  the  welfare  of  society  depends  upon  the  widest  pos- 
sible distribution  of  reliable  information  of  this  kind  that  the  state 
is  justified  in  giving  the  service  free.  *  The  importance  and 

the  essentially  public  nature  of  the  information  gathered  by  employ- 
ment offices  make  the  performance  of  this  service  a  public  function. 

"As  institutions  for  furnishing  information,  public  employment 
offices  have  as  one  of  their  greatest  functions  to  stand  at  the  entrance 
to  the  industrial  world  and  point  the  way  to  children  and  immigrants. 
The  public  employment  offices  should  employ  clerks  who 
speak  the  languages  of  the  newcomers.  These  clerks  should  prepare,  in 
the  native  tongues  of  the  immigrants,  bulletins  describing  the  industrial 
opportunities  in  the  state,  and  should  advise  and  direct,  the  newcomers 
into  the  most  promising  field. 

"Little  can  be  done  by  employment  offices  directly  to  remedy  time 
maladjustment.  But  they  are  able  to  furnish  the  information  on  which 
any  adequate  remedy,  such  as  unemployment  insurance,  must  be  based, 
and  for  the  unorganized  workers  they  will  have  to  supply  the  adminis- 
trative machinery  for  testing  the  validity  of  any  wage-earner's  claim 
that  he  is  unable  to  secure  employment.  *  *  *  No  wood  pile  or 
rock  pile  can  be  such  a  test.  The  worker  must  be  offered  bona  fide 
employment  such  as  is  fitted  to  his  abilities  and  to  his  station  in  the 
industrial  ranks.  Only  a  well  organized  system  of  employment  offices 
can  offer  such  employment,  and  it  is  only  through  such  an  organization 
of  the  labor  market  that  we  can  ever  .tell  positively  that  there  is  no 
opportunity  for  the  idle  wage-earner  to  secure  employment. 

"In  conclusion,  it  must  be  pointed  out  that  these  most  important 
functions  of  employment  offices,  namely,  to  reduce  unnecessary  idle- 


18  COMMISSION    OF    IMMIGRATION    AND    HOUSING. 

ness  and  to  serve  as  part  of  the  administrative  machinery  of  dealing 
with  the  problem  of  unemployment  will  never  be  undertaken  by  private 
labor  agents  because  there  is  no  incentive  for  them  to  do  it.  It  involves 
expense  for  which  there  is  no  return  except  to  the  state  as  a  whole  in 
securing  the  fullest  application  of  its  labor  force,  and  in  placing  the 
burden  of  unemployment  on  industry,  where  it  belongs." 

We  would  reiterate  that  we  are  not  so  optimistic  as  to  be  deluded  into 
the  belief  that  the  proposed  state  bureau  of  labor  exchanges  would 
finally  and  conclusively  solve  the  problem  of  unemployment.  But  it 
is  our  firm  conviction  that  the  establishment  of  such  a  bureau  would  be 
the  first  step  in  a  constructive  program  to  get  workers  in  touch  with 
work,  and  in  the  encouragement  of  new  enterprises.  Even  if  more 
opportunities  are  provided  for  labor,  the  proposed  bureau  will  be  neces- 
sary to  maintain  the  confidence  of  employers  and  employees  in  a  stable 
labor  market. 

Causes  of  Unemployment. 

However  nearly  perfect  we  may  make  state  labor  exchanges,  for  some 
time  to  come  we  shall  still  have  unemployed  men  and  periods  of  unem- 
ployment. In  some  instances,  the  cause  is  to  be  sought  in  the  indi- 
vidual; at  other  times,  in  the  circumstances.  Sickness  is  a  common 
cause  of  unemployment.  Child  neglect  is  another  cause.  In  the  en- 
vironment, we  observe  the  seasonal  occupations,  in  which  overtime  work 
is  followed  by  regular  periods  of  slack.  Then  come  economic  depres- 
sions whitih  overthrow  all  our  calculations. 

The  seat  of  sickness  is  most  often  found  in  the  home  or  place  of 
residence.  (See  Appendix  C-8.)  To  hit  this  evil  at  the  root  we  have 
several  definite  suggestions,  and  two  or  three  recommendations. 

Labor  Camp  Sanitation. 

Thousands  of  casual  workers  spend  much  of  their  lives  in  labor  camps 
or  on  farms.  Our  recent  investigations,  covering  about  900  labor  camps 
equipped  to  house  62,000  men,  have  revealed  deplorable  conditions. 
And  our  experience  has  shown  that  good  living  conditions  tend  to 
stop  "floating"  and  make  for  a  steady  working  force.  (See  Appendix 
C-7.)  What  we  have  accomplished  in  the  field  of  camp  sanitary  and 
housing  reform  should  be  but  the  beginning  of  a  larger  movement.  We 
therefore  urge  the  passing  of  definite  laws  governing  sanitation  and 
housing  in  labor  camps,  based  upon  our  experience  during  the  past 
year;  the  enforcement  of  these  laws  to  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  a 
bureau  of  camp  sanitation  and  housing,  under  our  commission,  the 
Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  or  under  a  reorganized  State  Board  of 
Health ;  with  a  special  appropriation  of  $25.000  a  year. 


REPORT    ON   PROBLEM    OF    UNEMPLOYMENT.  19 

City    Housing. 

Proper  city  housing-  is  even  of  greater  importance,  for  children  are 
involved.  We  therefore  recommend  a  complete  revision  of  our  housing 
laws,  broadened  to  take  in  family  dwellings  as  well  as  lodging  houses 
and  tenements ;  the  enforcement  to  be  in  the  hands  of  a  bureau  of 
housing,  under  our  commission  or  under  a  reorganized  State  Board  of 
Health ;  with  a  special  appropriation  of  $20,000  a  year. 

We  favor  enlarging  the  powers  of  the  bureau  for  the  prevention  of 
tuberculosis  under  the  State  Board  of  Health,  for  our  investigations 
have  revealed  to  us  the  prevalence  of  the  white  plague  both  in  city 
slums  and  among  the  class  of  casual  workers. 

Education  and  Vocational  Guidance. 

We  urge  the  passing  of  legislation  making  it  possible  for  public 
schools  to  take  up  the  task  of  home  visiting,  for  again  our  experience 
during  the  past  year  has  shown  us  howr  needful  are  lessons  in  decent 
living,  particularly  among  the  foreign  born.  (See  Appendix  F.) 

The  fate  of  the  adult  is  determined  in  great  part  during  childhood. 
The  unguided  or  badly  guided  child  has  a  not  very  promising  future. 
Therefore  we  recommend  that  your  Excellency  request  the  State  Board 
of  Education,  or  some  other  existing  board,  to  study  the  question  of 
vocational  guidance  and  training ;  this  with  the  object  in  view  of  reduc- 
ing for  the  future  the  number  of  ill-adapted  workers  and  unemploy- 
ables. 

There  is  nothing  that  contributes  more  to  the  helplessness  of  an  able- 
bodied  immigrant  laborer,  than  ignorance  of  the  language  of  the 
country  in  which  he  seeks  work.  In  California  we  are  not  meeting  the 
educational  needs  of  the  alien  who  is  being  enticed  to  us  in  increasing 
numbers.  A  large  proportion  of  foreign  born  in  this  state  is  unable 
to  speak  the  English  language.  By  stimulation  a  large  percentage 
of  the  non-English  speaking  people  could  be  taught  our  language  and 
so  put  upon  a  self-respecting  and  self-protecting  basis. 

The  temporary  Commission  on  Immigration  in  Massachusetts  found 
280,000  illiterates  in  their  state  of  whom  only  80,000  were  receiving 
instruction.  That  Commission  recommended  that  children  from  four- 
teen to  seventeen  and  all  on  work  certificates  be  compelled  to  attend 
school  one  half  day  until  able  to  read  and  write;  that  children  from 
seventeen  to  twenty-one  be  compelled  to  attend  evening  school  until 
literate;  that  all  possible  short  cuts  be  made  to  teach  English  to  adults; 
that  no  city  should  be  obliged  to  bear  the  full  expense  of  educating 
this  shifting  population  but  that  the  state  should  bear  one  half  of  all 
such  expenses. 

Though  the  act  creating  our  Commission  specified  the  field  of  immi- 
grant education  as  a  place  for  our  activity,  we  have  been  able  to  do 


20  COMMISSION   OF   IMMIGRATION   AND   HOUSING. 

little  more  than  make  a  rough  survey  on  account  of  our  limited  appro- 
priation and  the  urgency  of  other  work  that  forced  itself  upon  our 
attention.  It  is  our  hope  that  the  legislature  will  see  fit  to  make  our 
appropriation  sufficiently  large  to  enable  us  to  take  up  this  very 
important  work. 

Unemployment    Insurance. 

For  the  worker  in  seasonal  trades,  and  in  fact  for  all  who  labor  for 
a  wage,  we  suggest  unemployment  insurance,  though  we  are  not  pre- 
pared to  recommend  any  particular  form.  The  success  of  this  state  in 
handling  industrial  accident  insurance  is  one  argument  that  warrants 
our  looking  more  deeply  into  the  whole  field  of  social  insurance.  We 
urge  that  your  Excellency  designate  some  existing  board  or  commission 
to  investigate  this  subject  thoroughly,  to  report,  say  in  two  years. 
Data  supplied  by  the  proposed  bureau  of  labor  exchanges  would  be  of 
inestimable  value  in  any  such  investigation.  We  commend  to  your 
attention  the  experience  of  England  and  certain  continental  countries, 
particularly  Denmark  and  Belgium,  which  has  invented  the  Ghent 
system  of  subsidizing  labor  unions  to  conduct  the  machinery  for  unem- 
ployment insurance. 

Unemployables   and   Vagrants. 

We  recognize  the  possibility  of  dividing  the  unemployed  into  three 
groups:  (a)  the  employable;  (&)  the  unemployable;  and  (c)  the 
vagrant.  But  we  realize  the  practical  difficulty  involved  in  making  the 
distinction  in  particular  cases.  The  suggestions  made  so  far,  and  those 
to  follow,  have  to  do  mainly  with  the  employables.  We  suggest  that 
you  request  some  existing  commission  to  devote  special  attention  to  the 
problem  of  the  unemployable  and  the  vagrant,  to  report  to  you  in  a 
year.  Our  own  belief  is  that  the  unemployable  are  a  proper  charge 
upon  the  state,  and  that  if  private  charity  is  to  assist  in  their  care,  the 
state  at  least  should  guide  and  control  such  private  enterprise. 

Regularizing    Industry. 

We  believe  that  fruitful  effort  might  be  expended  in  the  direction 
•of  inducing  employers  in  agriculture  and  in  industry  to  regularize 
their  work.  This  is  an  indispensable  feature  in  any  solution  of  the 
problem  of  unemployment.  We  understand  that  certain  farmers  in 
the  vicinity  of  Sacramento  and  in  the  south  have  selected  crops  with  this 
object  in  view,  and  that  in  some  districts  the  plan  has  been  tried  with 
good  results.  (See  Appendix  C-6.)  What  they  require  is  a  program 
supported  by  intelligent  advice  and  guidance.  We  recommend  that 
you  assign  to  some  board  the  task  of  studying  and  reporting  upon  this 
question.  The  logical  organization  would  be  the  bureau  of  labor 
exchanges,  or  the  commission  under  which  it  might  be  placed.  To  this 


REPORT   ON  PROBLEM   OF   UNEMPLOYMENT.  21 

same  body  you  might  give  the  duty  of  reporting  upon  the  possibility  of 
reserving  certain  public  works  for  the  winter  months  or  for  periods  of 
depression. 

Improvement  of  Rural  Conditions. 

In  these  days  we  hear  much  talk  about  "back  to  the  land"  and 
"forward  to  the  land."  The  proponents  of  these  movements  show  us 
with  alarm  the  exhibit  from  the  census  presenting  the  facts  that  during 
the  decade  1900-1910,  while  our  rural  population  increased  by  34.5 
per  cent,  the  population  in  towns  of  2,500  or  more  increased  81.4  per 
cent,  or  nearly  two  and  one  half  times  as  rapidly.  During  this  same 
decade,  the  number  of  farms  increased  21.6  per  cent  against  an  increase 
of  60.1  per  cent  in  the  population;  the  total  farm  acreage,  however, 
decreased.  Perhaps  there  is  some  good  ground  for  their  alarm.  Per- 
haps a  different  situation  might  prove  a  relief  in  this  problem  of  unem- 
ployment. The  relative  unattractiveness  of  the  land  is  shown  particu- 
larly in  the  ease  of  white  foreign  born.  Though  24.2  per  cent  of  our 
population  in  1910,  they  formed  28.1  per  cent  of  those  living  in  towns 
and  only  20.5  per  cent  of  our  rural  population ;  and  this  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  most  of  our  immigrants  come  from  rural  districts  in  Europe. 

We  believe  that  the  cause  of  this  phenomenon  is  to  be  sought  in  the 
unwarranted  high  price  of  agricultural  land,  too  often  based  upon 
speculative  valuation  with  no  regard  to  its  productivity,  and  upon  the 
lack  of  organization  among  our  farmers,  leaving  each  to  wage  his  battle 
for  credit  and  markets  alone  and  single-handed.  (See  Appendix  C-9.) 

A  few  weeks  ago,  when  several  enthusiasts  advocated  bringing  op- 
pressed Belgians  into  this  state,  Mr.  Gavin  McNab,  the  proponent  of 
the  scheme,  was  quoted  in  the  San  Francisco  "Bulletin"  of  October 
21st  as  saying,  "Too  long  the  custom  has  been  to  place  speculative 
values  on  the  land  in  this  state  and  thus  prevent  the  taking  up  of  cer- 
tain sections  by  investors."  In  the  same  issue,  Mr.  A.  S.  Baldwin,  of 
the  firm  of  Baldwin  &  Howell,  was  quoted:  "The  main  difficulty  in 
work  of  this  kind  is  that  in  colonization  the  land  is  figured  so  far  in 
advance  of  its  true  value  that  the  farmer  is  beset  with  troubles  from 
the  outset.  There  is  too  much  greed  among  the  landowners  in  most 
of  these  colonization  projects.  Also  exorbitant  commissions  are  paid 
for  promotion,  with  the  result  that  the  settler  finds  himself  saddled 
with  the  tremendous  burdens." 

Colonel  Harris  Weinstock,  in  an  address  delivered  November  llth 
before  the  California  State  Fruit  Growers'  Convention  at  Los  Angeles, 
said: 

' '  Great  fortunes  have  been  expended  throughout  the  nation  and  else- 
where, inviting  people  to  engage  in  California  agriculture,  and  horti- 
culture, but  our  methods  have  been  so  crude  and  so  unscientific  and  the 
love  of  greed  on  the  part  of  land  promoters  has  been  such,  that  a  very 


22  COMMISSION   OF   IMMIGRATION    AND   HOUSING. 

great  proportion  of  those  who  have  been  induced  to  come  here,  and  to 
buy  our  acreages,  have  failed,  with  great  misfortune  to  themselves,  and 
with  serious  injury  to  the  state. 

"A  frightfully  large  proportion  of  such  investors  have  come  to  grief, 
have  been  forced  back  to  the  cities,  many  of  them  as  unskilled  laborers, 
to  swell  the  ranks  of  the  casual  unemployed  and  many  of  them  have 
cursed  the  state  as  a  delusion  and  a  snare,  have  shouted  their  misfor- 
tunes from  the  housetops,  and  have  thus  injured  California  in  the  eyes 
of  their  sympathizers  here  and  elsewhere." 

Evidence  of  this  sort  could  be  cited  ad  infinitum.  The  complaint 
bureau  of  our  Commission  has  evidence  sufficient  to  show  that  many  of 
these  land  deals  are  attended  by  downright  fraud  and  misrepresenta- 
tion. (See  Appendix  C-ll.) 

There  seems  to  be  no  one  who  would  take  the  case  against  those  who 
advocate  making  easier  and  more  attractive  the  approach  to  the  land. 
The  farm  is  the  natural  outlet  for  our  overcrowded  cities.  It  is  out  of 
the  rural  districts  that  wre  must  hope  to  get  the  backbone  of  our  citi- 
zenry. Almost  all  proposed  unemployment  solutions  that  pretend  to 
thoroughness  look  to  the  land  for  relief. 

Assuming  the  desire  to  get  on  the  land,  along  with  the  means  and  the 
ability,  the  first  requisite  is  knowledge  of  available  holdings.  Today 
practically  all  information  of  this  sort  is  compiled  by  railroads,  cham- 
bers of  commerce,  boards  of  trade,  or  the  promoters  of  some  land 
project.  These  are  naturally  interested  parties.  There  is  nothing  to 
show  the  prospective  purchaser  just  how  much  and  wherein  he  should 
discount  their  enthusiasm. 

State  Land   Bureau. 

During  October,  1914,  the  College  of  Agriculture  of  the  l:niversity 
of  California  issued  a  pamphlet,  "Some  Things  the  Prospective  Settler 
Should  Know."  That  was  a  start  in  the  right  direction.  We  should 
like  to  see  the  enterprise  enlarged  into  a  state  land  bureau,  to  supply 
at  cost  to  prospective  purchasers  all  needed  information  regarding  the 
best  economic  uses  of  land,  its  value,  approaches  to  market,  and  the 
like.  It  is  more  essential  to  start  the  settler  right  than  to  guide  him 
after  he  may  have  taken  up  an  almost  impossible  proposition. 

Closely  related  to  the  work  of  a  state  land  bureau  is  a  comprehensive 
land  law  that  will  make  more  difficult  fraud  and  misrepresentation  in 
the  sale  of  rural  lands,  and  that  will  bring  to  speedier  justice  the  vio- 
lators of  the  same,  and  give  equity  to  the  exploited.  We  have  our  regu- 
lation of  weights  and  measures,  and  our  pure  food  laws,  but  it  is  of 
vastly  greater  importance  to  the  community  as  a  whole  that  the  pros- 
pective purchaser  of  farm  lands  be  protected,  both  against  exploitation 
and  against  his  own  ignorance.  The  enforcement  of  such  a  law  might. 
be  given  over  to  the  proposed  state  land  bureau. 


REPORT   ON   PROBLEM    OF    UNEMPLOYMENT.  23 

National  Marketing  Commission. 

If  a  merchant  go  into  a  new  town  to  open  a  business,  he  need  not  feel 
entirely  strange,  for  he  is  soon  invited  to  join  a  chamber  of  commerce 
or  a  merchants'  association,  which,  though  recognizing  the  proper  place 
of  competition,  attack  with  vigor  the  problems  which  all  merchants  have 
in  common.  If  a  skilled  mechanic  move  to  a  new  city.,  he  finds  common 
ground  in  the  labor  union,  and  he  does  not  feel  alone.  But  for  the 
farmer  there  is  no  organization  that  compares  with  the  merchants' 
association  or  the  trade  union  for  strength  of  influence  and  efficiency. 

To  overcome  this  deficiency  and  to  provide  a  competent  organization, 
there  is  pending  in  the  national  congress  a  joint  resolution  calling  for 
the  creation  of  a  national  marketing  commission  to  be  composed  of 
twenty-nine  members,  fifteen  of  whom  shall  be  farmers  and  fourteen 
of  whom  shall  be  selected  with  reference  to  their  eminence  in  commerce. 
law.  finance,  and  transportation,  said  commission  to  adopt  a  plan  of 
net  ion  for  the  effective  organization  of  the  states,  counties,  and  localities 
of  the  United  States  for  the  economic  distribution  of  the  products  of  the 
Farm.  (The  complete  text  of  the  joint  resolution  is  given  in  Appendix 
E.)  The  type  of  this  proposed  commission  is  the  Landwirtschaftsrat 
of  Germany.  It  is  conceivable  that  such  a  semiofficial  body,  taking  the 
place  in  reality  of  all  the  so-called  national  farmers'  organizations, 
would  wield  great  power.  Within  its  hands,  and  in  the  hands  of  the 
subordinate  state,  county  and  local  branches,  could  well  be  placed  the 
solution  of  all  those  problems  that  today  vex  the  unorganized  farmer. 
To  them  it  would  be  advisable  to  commit  the  working  out  of  some  sane 
scheme  of  rural  credits.  From  such  an  articulate  body  we  should  have 
the  right  to  expect  some  aid  in  the  solution  of  our  problem  of  unem- 
ployment, through  their  cooperation  with  the  proposed  bureau  of  labor 
exchanges. 

Therefore  we  trust  that  your  Excellency  will  see  fit  to  support  the 
above-mentioned  congressional  resolution  in  such  ways  as  you  may  deem 
wise,  and  that  you  will  urge  upon  our  state  legislature  to  memorialize 
congress  to  the  same  effect. 

Commission   of   Immigration   and    Housing. 

In  closing  this  report  on  unemployment,  we  deem  it  but  just  that  we 
indicate  to  your  Excellency  the  part  our  commission  has  taken  and  is 
prepared  to  take  in  the  solution  of  the  problem  in  question.  As  we  said 
above,  the  immigration  situation  has  much  in  common  with  the  question 
of  unemployment.  The  newly-arrived  immigrant  is  a  man  looking  for 
a  job.  But,  furthermore,  the  alien  who  can  not  get  located,  who  falls 
prey  to  abuse  and  exploitation,  soon  becomes  a  ready  candidate  for  the 
army  of  unemployed.  Whatever  protects  the  stranger  from  land  sharks, 
unscrupulous  employment  agents,  shyster  lawyers,  thieving  notaries. 

5—14524 


24  COMMISSION   OP   IMMIGRATION   AND   HOUSING. 

and  crooks  in  general;  and  whatever  smooths  his  path  to  economic  bet- 
terment, social  and  educational  welfare  and  good  citizenship,  attacks 
this  problem  of  unemployment  at  its  very  roots.  This  is  just  that  ounce 
of  prevention  which  is  better  than  the  pound  of  cure. 

We  point  particularly  to  the  hundreds  of  labor  camps  which,  volun- 
tarily, have  complied  with  the  standards  we  established;  to  the  work 
we  have  done  in  the  field  of  municipal  housing  reform;  to  the  accom- 
plishments effected  through  our  complaint  bureau,  which,  during  the 
last  six  months,  has  received  1,500  complaints  (Appendix  C-ll)  ;  to  the 
light  we  have  thrown  on  the  iniquitous  practices  prevalent  in  the  treat- 
ment of  a  large  portion  of  our  unskilled  labor;  to  the  data  we  have 
gathered  on  the  whole  subject  of  migratory  and  casual  workers. 

But  much  of  our  proper  field  still  remains  practically  untouched.  To 
broaden  out,  a  larger  appropriation  will  be  required.  Then  we  shall 
be  enabled  to  enlarge  the  scope  of  our  complaint  work ;  to  delve  into 
the  question  of  immigrant  education  and  citizenship  (see  Appendix 
F) ;  and  to  make  proper  provision  for  the  care  and  protection  of  immi- 
grants at  the  docks  and  in  transit. 

Respectfully  submitted. 

COMMISSION   OF   IMMIGRATION  AND   HOUSING 
OF  CALIFORNIA. 

EDWARD  J.  HANNA. 
MRS.  FRANK  A.  GIBSON. 

PAUL    SCHARRENBERG. 

SIMON  J.  LUBIN. 


REPORT   ON   PROBLEM    OF   UNEMPLOYMENT.  25 


APPENDIX  A. 

Digest  of  Letters  Sent  to  the  Governor. 

During  the  past  year,  your  Excellency  referred  to  our  Commission  certain  com- 
munications addressed  to  you  on  this  subject  of  unemployment.  We  herewith 
append  the  chief  recommendations  made  in  the  more  important  letters : 

1.  ED  LAMBBECHTS,  general  delivery,  San  Francisco,  a  laborer  (June  17,  1914) 
suggests  the  public  posting  of  available  jobs  in  convenient  places. 

2.  GEOBGE   STANLEY,   St.   Helena    (March  22,   1914),   tells  how  Australia  put 
some  unemployed  to  work  in  gold  mines. 

3.  MRS.  A.   S.  NICELY,   Fruitvale    (March  24,  1914),  suggests  that  strikes  and 
lockouts  be  limited  to  48  hours  duration,  and  that  the  liability  law  be  modified  so 
as  not  to  militate  against  married  men. 

4.  A.  J.  PILLSBUBY  of  the  Industrial  Accident  Commission    (March  25,  1914), 
favors   (1)   state  labor  exchanges,    (2)   handling  vagrants  as  felons,   (3)   unemploy- 
ment insurance  some  time  in  the  future. 

5.  HABRIS    WEINSTOCK,    member    Industrial   Accident    Commission    and    United 
States  Commission  on  Industrial  Relations,  recommends,  ''that  state  legislation  be 
passed,  authorizing  the  purchase  of  certain  acreage  of  arable  land  to  be  used  as  a 
state  farm  or  farms ;  that  such  farm  or  farms  be  placed  under  the  direction  of  the 
Agricultural  Department  of  the  state,  or  under  the  Agricultural  Department  of  the 
State    University.     These    state    farms    to    afford    employment    primarily    to    the 
migratory  unemployed,  who  are  to  receive  in  return  for  their  labor,  food,  shelter, 
and  a  small  per  diem.     The  reason  for  allowing  only  a  small  per  diem  is  to  avoid 
making  the  employment  too  attractive,  so  that  applications  may  be  confined  to  those 
unable  to  do  better  elsewhere.     This   per  diem   to   be   placed   to   the   credit   of   the 
worker  on  the  books  of  the  state  farm  and  to  be  held  and  used  in  the  manner  here- 
inafter set  forth. 

"The  plan  in  mind  further  contemplates  the  creation  of  a  state  employment 
exchange  with  branches  in  various  parts  of  the  state.  Daily  or  weekly  reports  on 
the  condition  of  the  labor  market  are  to  be  sent  by  the  branches  to  the  headquarters 
of  the  State  Employment  Exchange.  This  information  to  be  tabulated  at  such 
headquarters  and  bulletins  prepared  which  will  show  where  there  is  a  surplus  and 
where  there  is  a  demand  for  labor ;  the  headquarters  will  thus  serve  the  purpose 
of  a  clearing  house  for  labor  information.  The  central  labor  exchange  is  also  to 
be  kept  advised  of  the  number  of  unemployed  at  the  various  state  farms  with  a  view 
of  supplying  whatever  demand  may  from  time  to  time  arise  at  other  places.  When 
men  are  to  be  furnished  from  these  state  farms,  the  central  labor  exchange  will 
issue  requisitions  on  such  state  farms  having  a  supply  of  the  unemployed.  The 
head  of  such  institution  will  select  the  men  who  have  been  with  him  longest  and 
who  are  most  likely  to  prove  efficient,  using  the  amounts  to  their  credit  from  their 
per  diems  to  cover  transportation,  paying  them  in  cash  whatever  surplus  may  be 
left  to  their  credit. 

"The  first  problem  is  how  to  segregate  the  sheep  from  the  goats  among  the  unem- 
ployed. That  is,  how  to  determine  which  among  the  unemployed  are  fit  and  worthy 
and  willing  to  work  and  which  are  professional  bummers.  The  plan  as  outlined 
above  would  enable  the  authorities  to  distinguish  between  those  who  will  and  those 
who  will  not  work.  It  will  rob  the  unworthy  of  the  pretext  to  beg  or  to  willfully 
remain  in  idleness.  On  the  other  hand,  it  will  make  it  possible  for  the  decent, 
sober  worker,  in  exchange  for  his  labor  to  at  least  get  food  and  shelter,  so  that  hs 
may  not  be  forced  below  the  poverty  line  and  degenerate  speedily  into  the  mendicant.'' 

6  P.  J.  PETERSON,  1590  Broadway,  San  Francisco  (March  26,  1914),  recom- 
mends (1)  minimum  wage.  (2)  making  summer  employer  deposit  with  the  state 
enough  money  to  keep  men  throughout  the  winter,  (3)  state  to  find  summer  work 
for  every  resident. 


26  COMMISSION    OF    IMMIGRATION    AND    HOUSING. 

7.  J.    R.    CUNNYNGHAM,    of    Cunnyngham    Realty    Syndicate,    26    Montgomery 
street,  San  Francisco   (March  24,  1914)   suggests  that  the  state  improve  land,  sell 
it  for  net  cost,  issue  bonds  for  selling  price  secured  by  land,  and  give  these  bonds 
to  the  purchasers. 

8.  ALBERT    EHRGOTT,    Vocational    Employment,    San    Francisco    Young    Men's 
Christian   Association,    advocates    (1)    federal    labor   exchanges,    (2)    county    labor 
exchanges,    (3)    listing   of   decent    private   agencies,    (4)    industrial    farm    colonies, 
(5)    temporary  shelters,    (6)   campaign  for  vocational  guidance,    (7)   shortening  the 
work  day,  (8)  power  of  the  governor  to  provide  state  work  for  the  idle. 

9.  GEORGE  W.  MARTIN,  1217  Nineteenth  street,  Sacramento   (March  21,  1914) 
suggests  that  the  state  or  national  government  acquire  laud,  fully  improve  and  equip 
it,  and  sell  it  on  twenty  years'  terms  to  citizens  or  to  those  who  have  declared  their 
intention  of  becoming  citizens. 

10.  MRS.  ANNA  Ross,  Annette,  California    (March  20,   1914)    advises  that   the 
state  sell  land  on  easy  terms. 

11.  CALIFORNIA    LAND   FOR    SETTI.KMKNT    LKAGUE    suggests    adoption    of    New 
Zealand  land  law  authorizing  a  county  board  of  supervisors  to  lease  at  low  rentals 
municipally  owned  lands  to  actual  settlers,   in  small   tracts,   the  county   to  supply 
auxiliary  jobs  for  three  days  a  week. 


REPORT    OX    PROBLEM    OF    UNEMPLOYMENT.  27 


APPENDIX  B-l. 

Bibliography  of  Unemployment. 

1.  Bibliography  on  social  insurance.  See  American  Labor  legislation  Review, 
Vol.  Ill,  No.  L>.  June.  1913,  "Social  Insurance,"  pages  287-292. 

'2.  The  Future  Problem  of  Charity  and  the  Unemployed,  John  Graham  Brooks; 
American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science,  publication  No.  12'J. 

3.  The  Theory  of  Public  Employment  Offices  and  the  Principles  of  their  Pract1'- 
cal  Administration,   William  M.   Leisersou  ;   Ginn  &  Co.,  1914. 

4.  The  Unemployment  in  European  Counties,  W.  D.  P.  Bliss  ;  Bulletin  of  the 
U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor,  No.  70,  May  1908. 

5.  The  Break-up  of  the  Poor  Law.  S.  &  B.  Webb :  Longmans  &  Co..  1909. 

6.  The  Public  Organization  of  the  Labor  Market,  S.  &  B.  Webb ;  Longmans  & 
Co.,  1909. 

7.  Unemployment,  A.  C.  Pigou  ;  Henry  Holt  &  Co.,  1913. 

S.     The  Elimination  of  the  Tramp,  Edmond  Kelly ;  Putnam's,  1908. 

9.  Unemployment,  B.  S.  Rowntree  &  B.  Lasker,  Macmillan,  1911. 

10.  Problems  of  Poverty,  J.  A.  Hobson  ;  Methueu  &  Co.,  1913. 

11.  Unemployment  and  Trade  Unions,  Cyril  Jackson ;  Longmans,  Green  &  Co., 
1910. 

12.  The   Prevention   of  Destitution,    S.   &   B.    Webb ;    Longmans,   Green  &   Co., 
1912. 

13.  Report   of  First   National   Conference  on   Unemployment ;   American   Labor 
Legislation  Review,  Vol.  IV,  No.  2,  May  1914. 

14.  Unemployment.    W.    H.    Beveridge ;    Longmans,    Green   &   Co.,    1912.      (See 
pages  270-278  for  bibliography  on  Unemployment.) 

15.  Reports  of  the  United  States  Immigration  Commission  appointed  in  1907 ; 
41  volumes ;  2  volumes  contain  abstract  of  report. 

10.  Free  Public  Employment  Offices.  J.  E.  Conner;  Bulletin  of  the  U.  S.  Bureau 
<>f  Labor.  No.  OS,  January,  1907. 


28  COMMISSION    OF    IMMIGRATION    AND    HOUSING. 


APPENDIX  B— 2. 

Digest  of  Several    Books  on    Unemployment. 

1.  Unemployment,   by   W.    H.    Beveridge. 

'•Unemployment  arises  because,  while  the  supply  of  labor  grows  steadily,  the 
demand  for  labor,  in  growing,  varies  incessantly  in  volume,  distribution  and  char- 
acter. This  variation,  in  several  of  its  forms  at  least,  flows  directly  from  the  control 
of  production  by  many  competing  employers.  *  *  Unemployment,  in  other 

words,  is  to  some  extent  at  least  part  of  the  price  of  industrial  competition — part 
of  the  waste  without  which  there  could  be  no  competition  at  all.  *  *  *  If  the 
solution  of  the  problem  of  unemployment  means  that  every  man  should  have  the 
certainty  of  continuous  work  throughout  life,  then  no  solution  is  to  be  expected,  or. 
indeed,  desired.  If,  however,  by  a  solution  is  meant  that  no  man  able  and  willing 
to  work  should  come  to  degradation  or  destitution  for  want  of  work,  then  a  solution 
is  not  indeed  within  sight  but  by  no  means  beyond  hope.  Its  direction  is  certain  and 
its  distance  not  infinite.  The  demand  for  labor  can  not  be  stereotyped  save  in  a 
stagnant  industry.  The  supply  of  iabor  may  be  made  immeasurably  more  capable 
of  following  and  waiting  for  the  demand. 

"The  policy  outlined  in  this  book  is  a  policy  of  industrial  organization  ;  of  meet- 
ing deliberately  industrial  needs  that  at  present  are  met  wastefully  because  without 
deliberation.  Fluctuations  of  demand  are  now  provided  for  by  the  maintenance  of 
huge  stagnant  reserves  of  labor  in  varying  extremities  of  distress.  There  is  no 
reason  in  the  nature  of  things  why  they  should  not  be  provided  for  by  organized 
reserves  of  labor  raised  beyond  the  reach  of  distress.  To  be  able  to  follow  the  demand 
men  must  possess  greater  powers  of  intelligent  movement  from  place  to  place ;  they 
must  possess  also  power  to  move  from  trade  to  trade,  or — a  more  essential  point — 
they  must  have  better  guidance  in  the  first  choice  of  occupations.  To  be  able  to 
wait  for  the  demand  men  must  have  a  reserve  for  emergencies  ;  they  must  not  be 
living  from  hand  to  mouth ;  they  must  through  insurance  or  its  equivalent  be  able 
to  average  wages  over  good  and  bad  times  and  to  subsist  without  demoralization 
till  they  can  be  reabsorbed  again  after  industrial  transformations.  These  two  meas- 
ures are  complementary  and,  in  some  sense  indeed,  alternative  to  one  another." 

2.  Prevention  of   Destitution,   by  S.   &   B.  Webb. 

Sickness,  as  a  cause  of  unemployment  and  destitution,  should  be  attacked  through 

(1)  better  slum  sanitation  and  instruction;   (2)  visiting  nurses  and  hygienic  instruc- 
tors;   (3)   school  hygienic  instmction ;   and    (4)    organized  crusade  against  sickness 
with  specialized  central  department. 

There  should  be  careful  segregation  of  the  unfit. 

Child  neglect  should  be  remedied  by  (1)  school  authorities,  through  care  com- 
mittees and  attendance  officers;  and  (2)  part  time  instruction  for  children  from 
14  to  18  years  old. 

Cyclical  fluctuations  could  be  met  in  part  through  regularization  by  government 
orders;  seasonal  variations,  by  (1)  use  of  public  labor  exchanges,  and  (2)  short 
time  supplement  by  insurance. 

Underemployment  of  casuals  partly  overcome  by  use  of  labor  exchanges.  The 
residuum  to  be  reached  by  (1)  reducing  hours,  (2)  half  time  for  those  under  10 
years,  (3)  pensions  for  widows.  (4)  supporting  adequately  and  training  the  balance 
by  lunacy  boards,  invalidity  pensions  and  detention  colonies. 

Four  kinds  of  insurance  tend  to  relieve  the  unemployment  situation:     (1)  Old  age, 

(2)  invalidity,   (3)  sickness.   (4)   unemployment. 

The  directing  mind  within  this  whole  field  should  be  the  state,  which  should  find 
all  men  requiring  assistance  of  any  sort,  classify  them  properly,  and  then  indicate 
the  proper  measure  and  source  of  relief ;  establishing  the  organic  connection  between 
state  and  voluntary  agencies. 


REPORT   ON   PROBLEM    OP    UNEMPLOYMENT.  29 

3.  Unemployment,   by  Rowntree  &   Lasker. 

Experience  shows  that  SO  per  cent  of  those  under  19  have  begun  badly.  Correc- 
tion should  be  through  (1)  medical  inspection  in  schools,  (2)  removal  from  bad 
homes,  (3)  school  care  committees.  (4)  labor  exchanges  cooperating  with  schools, 
with  advisory  committees  on  juvenile  employment,  (5)  training  schools  for  the 
unemployed  and  one  third  time  for  boys  in  blind-alley  trades. 

For  regular  workers  there  should  be  (1)  labor  exchanges,  (2)  regulation  of  public 
employment,  (3)  afforestation,  etc.,  (4)  short  time,  and  (5)  the  training  of  youths. 

For  the  casual  wrorker  there  should  be  (1)  decasualization  of  the  labor  market 
through  shortening  hours,  part  time  in  industrial  schools,  and  mothers'  pensions. 
(2)  unemployment  insurance,  and  (3)  land  cultivation  as  in  Belgium. 

For  the  building  trades,  (1)  labor  exchanges,  (2)  decasualization,  (3)  alternative 
employment,  (4)  insurance,  and  (5)  country  residence. 

For  the  work-shy,  whatever  of  the  above  is  applicable,  along  with  labor  colonies. 

4.  The   Elimination  of  the  Tramp,  by  Edmond  Kelly. 

For  those  in  search  of  employment,  way  tickets  and  casual  wards ; 

For  the  temporarily  unemployed,  in  exceptional  periods  of  depression,  temporary 
relief  work ; 

For  the  unemployables,  free  labor  colonies  wherever  possible ;  forced  colonies 
wherever  necessary ;  these  colonies  should  be  small  and  agricultural  rather  than 
large  and  industrial ;  paying  their  own  expenses ;  not  competing  with  free  labor. 


30  COMMISSION    OF    IMMIGRATION    AND    HOUSING. 


APPENDIX  C-l. 

Summary  of  Report  on  the  Floating  Laborer  in  California  by  the  Commission  of 
Immigration  and  Housing  of  California. 

This  is  a  report  of  an  investigator's  experiences  concerning  a  subject  of  more 
than  passing  importance.  Some  valuable  suggestions  are  made.  The  opinion  of  the 
investigator  is  that  there  are  perhaps  20,000  men  in  California  who  have  no  fixed 
residence,  and  wander  from  place  to  place  seeking  seasonal  labor ;  that  these  men 
are  idle  far  more  days  than  they  work ;  that  many  of  them  will  not  work  more  than 
a  few  days  at  a  time,  or  just  long  enough  to  get  a  "stake." 

There  are  various  causes  that  make  tramps  out  of  what  were  once  steady  workers  ; 
intemperance  being  one  of  the  greatest.  A  lack  of  information  regarding  work  is 
given  as  a  great  drawback.  Much  time  is  spent  "on  the  road,"  beatinu:  trains,  etc., 
between  jobs.  They  get  insufficient  food  and  contract  sickness  and  debility  from 
sleeping  out.  They  soon  lose  all  ambition.  Very  few  carry  blankets.  They  are 
often  ill  treated  by  farmers  and  others.  The  local  constables  make  life  miserable. 
Any  officer  is  an  enemy.  Their  social  life  is  demoralizing. 

CONCLUSIONS. 

That  the  floating  laborer  is  necessary  to  production  in  California — that  his  mode 
of  life  is  against  his  efficiency ;  that  his  attitude  towards  his  work  and  his  employer, 
and  society  in  general,  is  detrimental  to  his  usefulness — and  that  the  lack  of  interest 
in  his  welfare  by  those  to  whom  he  is  necessary  is  responsible,  to  some  extent,  for 
the  attitude  taken  by  him. 

Out  of  100  floating  laborers,  the  following  nationalities  were  represented  : 
American  (white),  66;  German,  14;  English,  11;  Italian,  2;  Mexican,  2;  negroes, 
2  ;  unclassified,  3  ;  total,  100. 


REPORT   ON   PROBLEM    OF   UNEMPLOYMENT.  31 


APPENDIX  C-2. 

Summary  of  Report  on  Berry  Picking  and  Fruit  Canning  in  Sonoma  County, 
by  the  Commission  of  Immigration  and  Housing  of  California. 

This  report  is  devoted  mainly  to  the  Sebastopol  berry  region  and  the  canneries  at. 
or  near,  Santa  Rosa  in  Sonoma  County. 

It  gives  the  output,  wages,  hours  of  labor,  etc.,  and  the  demand  for  labor  in  that 
vicinity  in  this  line  of  work. 

The  investigator  finds  that  the  demand  for  labor  is  heaviest  in  the  latter  part  of 
August,  and  after  the  opening  of  schools  after  the  summer  vacations ;  also,  that 
there  is  no  way  for  the  "jobless  man"  to  know  of  this  work,  as  even  the  one  former 
private  employment  agency  in  the  district  has  been  discontinued.  The  demand  for 
labor  is  irregular  and  seasonal.  The  investigator  reports  a  public  employment  office 
would  be  of  great  benefit  to  employer  and  employee  in  this  section. 


6—14524 


32  COMMISSION   OP    IMMIGRATION    AND   HOUSING. 


APPENDIX  C-3. 

Epitomized  Statement  of  Report  on  the  Sand  Creek  Road  Situation  in  Fresno 
County,  by  the  Commission  of  Immigration  and  Housing  of  California. 

This  investigation  was  made  on  account  of  numerous  complaints  received  from 
foreign  laborers.  It  was  found  upon  investigation  that  one  contractor,  by  name 
of  Griffith,  had  employed  local  help  and  had  had  no  trouble  in  employment  or  keep- 
ing his  men.  Also  that  the  sanitary  conditions  were  excellent,  and  the  food  abund- 
ant and  good.  This  was  in  Tulare  County. 

A  man  by  the  name  of  Ball  had  the  contracts  in  Fresno  County  and  employed 
Armenian,  Hindoo  and  Mexican  laborers.  His  men  were  obtained  from  a  Fresno 
employment  agency,  and  were  being  constantly  discharged  for  laziness  or  ineffi- 
ciency, it  was  said.  As  the  work  was  semi-public  and  the  complaints  numerous  the 
investigation  was  made,  and  while  it  revealed  no  actual  collusion  between  Ball  and 
the  employment  agency,  the  fact  remained  that  workingmen  were  migratory,  staying 
scarcely  a  week  in  the  camp,  and  that  many  of  them  could  work  only  two  or  three 
days.  It  was  freely  charged,  however,  that  Ball  received  fifty  cents  from  the  fee 
charged  by  the  agency. 

The  report  contains  recommendations  regarding  a  system  of  placing  men  where 
they  are  wanted  and  where  they  will  "fit." 


REPORT   ON   PROBLEM    OF   UNEMPLOYMENT. 


33 


APPENDIX  C-4. 

A  Digest  of  a  Report  on  the  Employment  Agency  Situation  in  California,  by 
the  Commission  of  Immigration  and  Housing  of  California. 

The  organization  of  the  labor  market  in  California  as  regards  the  work  of  con- 
necting man  and  job,  is  a  complex  of  several  different  agencies  acting  in  different 
ways  through  different  channels.  The  skilled  organized  element  have  their  own 
method  of  obtaining  work — job  control.  Each  labor  council  is  a  center  through 
which  these  men  obtain  information  as  to  work,  and  are  placed  at  their  different 
jobs.  Very  seldom  does  the  union  man  have  recourse  to  employment  agencies  of  any 
kind  in  seeking  work  at  his  trade,  though,  if  forced  out  of  his  own  line,  he  may 
utilize  them. 

The  unskilled,  unorganized  migratory  casual  worker  (a  distinctive  type  on  the 
Pacific  coast),  the  domestic  worker,  the  unorganized  hotel  and  restaurant  worker, 
have  several  methods  of  obtaining  work.  Personal  application  to  the  employer  is, 
of  course,  a  much  utilized  method  practiced  both  by  the  itinerant  worker  and  those 
more  fixed  in  their  way  of  living.  Again,  there  are  countless  unorganized  methods 
of  spreading  and  obtaining  information  as  to  jobs.  Saloons  and  boarding  houses, 
pool  rooms,  coffee  clubs,  all  the  places  at  which  idle  men  are  to  be  found,  have  come 
to  be  used  by  employers  after  men,  and  by  men  after  work.  Many  abuses  impossible 
to  expose  or  to  stamp  out,  have  sprung  up  in  connection  with  these.  It  is  impossible 
to  state  just  what  proportion  of  work  of  this  nature,  that  of  finding  men  and  work, 
is  done  by  the  employment  agencies  proper.  Though  relative  to  the  other  agencies 
they  are  probably  not  all-important  in  this  respect,  the  volume  of  their  business  is 
enormous.  For  the  year  ended  March  31.  1912,  194,408  jobs  were  reported  filled 
by  the  licensed  agencies,  fees  totaling  $403,064.29  being  received.  The  actual  figures 
doubtless  far  exceed  the  above  numbers,  as  the  system  of  state  supervision  and  regu- 
lation prevailing  at  the  time  they  were  obtained  was  admittedly  lax  and  inadequate. 

ORGANIZATION    OF    PRIVATE    EMPLOYMENT    SYSTEM. 
Number  and    Kinds. 

The  division  of  the  private,  licensed  fee-charging  agencies  as  to  location  and 
character  of  business,  at  the  time  this  report  is  submitted,  is  as  follows : 


Domestics— 

General  

H 

H 

I 

Clerical  .  — 

H 

| 

Colored  

Teachers  — 

Nurses  

H 

0 

11 

17 

g 

10 

5 

11 

1 

2 

65 

Oakland 

4 

5 

3 

12 

Los  Angeles 

6 

17 

5 

9 

3 

15 

4 

5 

64 

2 

2 

1 

2 

3 

Fresno 

6 

1 

1 

8 

Pasadena 

2 

2 

1 

5 

1 

9 

4 

14 

San  Diego 

3 

9 

12 

3 

3 

6 

^ 

7 

Cities    below    fourth 

37 

15 

52 

Totals  -_ 

26 

111 

13 

20 

8 

54 

1 

8 

6 

247 

34  COMMISSION   OF    IMMIGRATION    AND   HOUSING. 

The  distribution  of  business  as  to  cities  is  shown  by  the  following  figures,  which  ;iiv 
based  upon  the  report  of  the  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  for  1912.  The  figures  are 
for  the  license  year  ended  March  31,  1912.  (The  report  of  the  Bureau  of  Labor  Statis- 
tics for  1914  will  be  published  in  a  few  months.  Figures  for  last  year  are  not  as  yet 
available.)  San  Francisco  and  Los  Angeles  did  69  per  cent  of  the  total  employment 
agency  business  of  the  state.  The  third  and  fourth  class  cities,  including  Oakland,  did 
26  per  cent,  while  but  5  per  cent  was  done  in  the  smaller  towns.  Or,  again,  92  per  cent 
of  the  total  state  business  passed  through  six  cities :  San  Francisco,  Los  Angeles,  Sac- 
ramento. Stockton,  San  Diego  and  Oakland ;  and  only  S  per  cent  was  done  in  the  rest 
of  the  state.  This  proof  of  the  natural  centralization  of  the  work  of  employment 
agencies  is  of  value  as  an  indication  of  the  possibility  of  establishing  a  centralized  fed- 
eral or  state  system  of  employment  offices  or  exchanges. 

Abuses  and    Frauds   by   Agents. 

While  many  agents  claim  that  all  fraud  has  been  stamped  out  since  the  passage 
of  the  new  regulations  a  year  ago,  there  is  still,  without  the  slightest  doubt,  a  vast 
amount  of  fraud,  misrepresentation,  extortion,  splitting  of  fees,  and  all  the  other 
evils  that  seem  to  go  hand  in  hand  with  a  private  system  of  employment  agencies. 
It  is  charged  that  several  agencies  of  Los  Angeles  act  practically  as  procurers  for 
restaurants,  hotels,  etc.,  of  questionable  character.  The  average  casual  worker  will 
tell  of  numerous  cases  of  fraud.  Half  of  the  employment  agents  investigated  stated 
that  frauds  were  numerous,  always  of  course  stating  that  other  agencies  were  guilty. 
It  seems  safe  to  say  that  not  more  than  10  per  cent  of  the  actual  cases  of  fraud  ever 
get  to  the  ears  of  the  Labor  Commissioner.  There  are  offices  in  only  four  cities  ; 
it  is  practically  impossible  for  a  man  defrauded  in  other  towns  to  reach  a  repre- 
sentative of  the  Commission  and  have  his  plea  heard.  District  Attorney  McCormick 
of  Fresno  County  states  that  numerous  cases  have  been  brought  to  him,  but  that  he 
cannot  act.  He  telLs  of  several  men  who  were  discharged  from  a  job  at  Big  Creek, 
other  men  being  sent  to  take  their  places  and  no  refund  was  secured,  although  there 
is  a  strict  state  7-day  law. 

Again,  the  Labor  Commissioner  and  his  representatives  refuse  to  take  action 
unless  an  injured  worker  makes  a  personal  complaint.  This  is  in  many  cases 
impossible. 

We  have  on  file  records  of  many  flagrant  abuses,  especially  in  regard  to  splitting 
fees.  Detailing  the  cases  is  needless. 

The  practice  of  these  abuses  would  appear  to  be  confined  largely  to  the  small, 
medium  sized  agencies.  Practically  every  case  coming  to  our  knowledge  concerned 
the  ksser  agencies,  the  large  ones  in  each  town  in  general  being  free  from  suspicion. 
The  possibility  of  reform  through  a  high  license  which  would  eliminate  the  small 
man.  who  is  also  generally  the  inefficient  man,  is  touched  upon  later. 

Methods  of  Doing   Business. 

Some  information  as  to  their  business  methods  is  given  in  the  statistical  results. 
These,  however,  do  not  indicate  the  absolute  lack  of  business  method,  the  absence 
of  uniformity  as  to  accounts,  and  records,  the  haphazard,  accidental  ways  in  which 
the  offices  are  conducted.  Regular  state  business  forms  are  prescribed.  In  a  few 
offices  these  are  well  kept ;  in  quite  a  few  others  they  are  not  used  at  all,  while 
most  of  the  offices  post  them  up  months  after  the  business  is  done,  putting  in  figures 
absolutely  false  and  misleading,  merely  to  show  a  representative  of  the  Labor  Com- 
mission when  he  visits  them.  Of  forty  private  agencies  I  visited  personally,  I  would 
say  that  two  were  conducted  in  an  efficient  manner,  with  carefully  kept  up  files  and 
indices.  The  average  office  is  conducted  in  a  grossly  inefficient  manner. 

General   Character  of   Employment  Agents. 

The  men  in  charge  of  this  important  social  work  of  connecting  employer  and 
employee,  are  in  the  main  men  of  a  type  that  could  not  succeed  in  a  modern  business 
office.  Operating  a  hole-in-the-wall  in  a  back  alley  or  basement,  they  stand  ready 
to  undertake  a  business  of  which  they  know  nothing,  and  which  has  been  so  neglected 
as  a  field  for  organized  business  enterprise  that  they  can  succeed.  The  location  of 


REPORT   ON   PROBLEM    OF   UNEMPLOYMENT.  35 

a  great  many  of  these  offices  in  such  accidental  holes  as  the  agent  may  secure,  the 
absence  of  any  sense  of  business  organization  in  most  of  them,  and  the  general 
inefficient  character  of  the  men  who  conduct  them,  offer  a  vitally  interesting  com- 
mentary on  the  whole  private  employment  agency  system. 

State   Regulation. 

The  Commissioner  of  Labor  Statistics  has  sole  charge  and  supervision  of  all 
matters  pertaining  to  employment  agencies  which  exact  a  fee.  Applications  for 
license  must  be  made  to  the  Commissioner  who  reviews  the  facts  and  may  refuse 
the  license  on  certain  specified  grounds.  If  a  license  is  granted,  the  prospective 
agent  must  furnish  a  bond  and  pay  a  license  fee.  These  vary  according  to  the  size 
of  the  city.  Uniform  receipts  for  fee  charged  prescribed  by  the  Commissioner  must 
be  used.  No  attempt  is  made  to  regulate  the  amount  of  fees.  No  distinction  is 
made  on  the  basis  of  difference  of  labor  furnished,  the  statute  merely  saying  that  all 
agencies  charging  a  fee  come  within  its  clauses. 

Method    of    Regulation. 

All  licensed  agencies  must  make  monthly  reports  to  the  Commissioner  of  Labor 
on  forms  prescribed  and  furnished  by  the  Commission.  The  largest  agencies  are 
also  required  to  make  monthly  reports  on  the  condition  of  the  labor  market. 

All  delegated  officials  of  the  Commissioner  of  Labor  Statistics  have  power  to 
inspect  the  records,  registers,  books,  or  papers  kept  by  any  agent  pursuant  to  the 
1913  law.  Inspectors  have  only  made  inspections  in  cases  where  agents  were  sus- 
pected of  fraud.  Periodical  inspections  are  not  made,  the  Commissioner  being  satis- 
fied with  the  monthly  reports. 

The  power  to  revoke  licenses  is  not  clearly  defined.  The  Commissioner  must  get 
possession  of  the  license  by  physical  force.  The  agent  must  then  quit  the  business 
or  try  to  obtain  the  license  from  the  Commission  by  writ  of  mandamus.  Of  the 
twelve  occurrences  of  seizure  and  revocation  only  once  was  a  license  returned.  The 
success  of  this  method  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  Commissioner  has  always  waited 
until  a  clear  case  was  had  against  the  agent,  who  therefore  felt  constrained  to  go 
out  of  business.  Full  power  of  revocation  is  desired  by  the  Commiisioner. 

All  prosecutions  are  theoretically  handled  by  the  attorney  of  the  Commissioner 
but  as  a  matter  of  fact  the  district  attorney  of  the  county  in  which  the  alleged  offense 
is  committed  actually  prosecutes.  Cases  are  tried  before  the  state  and  county  courts, 
according  to  the  amount  of  money  involved,  not  the  amount  of  the  bond.  Of  the 
six  prosecutions  for  operating  without  a  license,  four  were  convictions..  The  remain- 
ing two  defendants  procured  license  either  before  or  during  the  trial  and  the  cases 
against  them  were  dismissed. 

PHILANTHROPIC  AGENCIES. 

Such  philanthropic  agencies  as  exist  in  California  are  of  negligible  importance 
when  viewing  the  broader  aspects  of  the  employment  agency  problem.  The  Salva- 
tion Army,  the  Associated  Charities,  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  and 
the  Young  Women's  Christian  Association,  and  several  minor  societies  engaged  in 
philanthropic  or  private  enterprises,  have  employment  offices  in  various  cities.  Most 
of  them  confine  their  business  to  providing  odd  jobs  for  a  few  hours  or  a  few  days. 
The  business  they  do  of  a  general  character  is  of  no  practical  importance  as  to 
volume,  and  of  little  illuminative  importance  as  to  business  methods.  In  fact,  most 
of  them  represent  a  greater  degree  of  inefficiency  than  the  average  private  office 
does.  Many  of  them,  moreover,  though  ostensibly  philanthropic,  are  really  coinmer- 
cialistic  in  spirit.  Christian  associations  that  give  jobs  only  if  one  becomes  a  mem- 
ber, a  Salvation  Army  boarding  house  which  will  not  give  a  man  a  job  unless  he  is 
a  boarder,  and  like  organizations,  are  demanding  a  fee  just  as  much  as  is  an  agency 
run  for  private  profit. 

It  is  worthy  of  note  that  most  of  these  philanthropic  agencies  object  to  the  idea 
of  federal  regulation  or  to  any  providing  of  reports  of  their  business  to  any  authori- 
ties, state  or  federal.  For  practically  all  of  them  either  abolition  or  strict  supervision 
and  regulation  is  just  as  necessary  as  it  is  for  a  profit  seeking  office. 


36  COMMISSION    OF    IMMIGRATION    AND    HOUSING. 

MUNICIPAL  OFFICES. 

There  are  in  California  three  recognized  municipal  offices,  situated  in  Los  Angeles. 
Sacramento  and  Berkeley.  A  public  wood  yard  conducted  by  the  city  of  Oakland 
furnishes  odd  jobs  for  such  men  as  come  to  it  for  beds  or  meals,  but  cannot  be  con- 
sidered as  an  employment  agency  proper. 

The  office  in  Sacramento  is  admittedly  a  failure.  But  a  very  few  positions, 
relatively,  are  filled  through  it,  and  these  are  in  the  main  of  the  lowest  type  of 
manual  labor.  It  appears  to  be  frequented  chiefly  by  the  kind  of  man  who  is  neither 
willing  nor  able  to  accept  steady  employment.  Unsubstantiated  charges  of  partiality 
have  been  made  against  the  manager. 

It  is  such  offices  as  this  that  bring  all  free  offices  into  disrepute,  and  lose  for  them 
the  confidence  of  both  employer  and  employee.  Charges  against  free  offices  that  one 
hears  on  every  hand  are  based  upon  experience  in  offices  that  do  not  represent  the 
best  of  the  free  agency  type. 

The  office  in  Berkeley  would  appear  to  be  efficiently  conducted,  but  it  does  not 
deal  at  all  with  any  of  the  larger  movements  of  the  labor  market.  It  has  been  said 
that  it.  is  more  in  the  nature  of  an  office  to  place  unemployables  than  one  dealing 
with  the  real  laboring  class. 

The  Los  Angeles  office  has  been  in  operation  since  January  1.  1914,  and  has 
placed  in  that  time,  according  to  its  statistics,  14.514  men  and  2.128  women,  a 
monthly  average  of  over  2,500.  Much  of  its  winter  work  is  in  the  nature  of  relief 
work  furnished  by  the  city  to  the  unemployed,  so  the  figures  are  apt  to  be  misleading. 
The  average  cost  per  position  furnished,  twenty-five  cents,  is  somewhat  understated 
for  the  same  reason. 

The  private  agents  of  Los  Angeles  make  many  charges  against  it.  but  in  the 
main  these  seem  to  be  unfounded.  It  is  doubtless  a  mistake  to  run  it  under  the 
control  of  the  Municipal  Charities.  Connection  such  as  that  gives  basis  to  the  fear 
tkat  men  looking  for  work  regard  a  free  office  as  a  charity.  But  from  a  broad  point 
of  view,  the  office  has  been  a  success.  Some  trouble  was  experienced  through  a  man- 
ager who  recently  resigned,  who  evidently  failed  to  realize  the  social  importance 
of  the  work  he  was  doing.  Those  in  charge  find  that  their  main  task  is  to  convince 
employers  that  they  can  furnish  efficient  and  skilled  men  of  the  better  class  of 
workinfmen.  They  state  that  they  have  any  number  of  such  men.  but  have  troubli- 
placing  them.  This  class  of  men  is  now  handled  through  the  office  at  which  women 
applicants  are  received,  as  it  has  been  found  that  this  works  better  than  forcing  the 
better  class  of  applicants  to  use  the  office  frequented  by  laborers.  The  office  is  con- 
ducted in  a  systematic,  efficient  manner,  and  is  the  most  attractive  employment 
agency  in  Los  Angeles.  It  appears  to  be  doing  much  to  live  down  the  reputation 
gaiaed  by  inefficiently  conducted  free  agencies  elsewhere,  and  to  prove  that  the  use 
of  a  free  office  is  not  necessarily  confined  to  the  down-and-outer  and  the  won't-work. 
The  office  will  go  under  a  civil  service  merit  system  within  a  few  months. 

Mr.  Donoho,  the  present  manager  of  this  office,  is  heartily  in  favor  of  a  system 
of  federal  exchanges,  or  any  plan  by  which  cooperation  and  uniformity  can  be  obtained 
in  the  employment  agency  system. 

SUB  ROSA  EMPLOYMENT  AGENCIES. 

There  are  many  methods  apart  from  the  organized  employment  agencies,  by  which 
man  and  job  find  each  other.  Hotels,  boarding  houses,  saloons,  are  places  at  which 
men  can  be  secured  by  employers.  Japanese,  Chinese  and  Mexican  labor  contractors 
control  their  gangs,  little  or  big,  securing  work  for  them  and  demanding  a  regular 
monthly  commission  from  each  man.  Most  of  these  are  outside  the  scope  of  any 
possible  regulation,  but  certain  evils  connected  with  them  are  worthy  of  noto. 

In  some  cases,  the  work  of  saloons  in  this  regard  has  developed  into  a  regular 
business.  One  saloon  in  Bakersfield  is  said  to  receive  orders  from  farmers,  ranchers, 
etc.,  by  telephone,  take  the  men  out  in  a  machine,  and  then  bring  them  in  when  the 
job  is  done.  Needless  to  say.  the  bringing  in  of  "live  ones"  is  worth  all  the  trouble 
they  go  to.  But  little  objection  can  be  made  to  the  hotels  and  boarding  houses  that 


REPORT   ON   PROBLEM    OF   UNEMPLOYMENT.  37 

perform  this  service  for  their  boarders,  inasmuch  as  none  of  them  charges  an  extra  fee 
for  it.  The  most  notable  instance  of  this  kind  encountered  was  met  with  in  San  Jose, 
where  five  or  six  Japanese  boarding  house  keepers  operate  regularly  in  this  way  in 
securing  work  for  their  boarders. 

The  padrone  system  is  very  hard  to  touch.  Among  Orientals  it  is  doubtless  dis- 
appearing, though  there  is  still  a  very  appreciable  amount  of  this  in  the  central 
valley  of  the  state.  The  system  grows  naturally  as  a  result  of  the  need  of  an  inter- 
preter— a  Japanese  or  Mexican  who  can  speak  the  English  language,  and  who  takes 
over  the  task  of  securing  work  for  others  who  can  not.  Control  of  the  work  often, 
of  course,  follows.  With  the  increased  knowledge  of  English,  and  the  lessened  num- 
ber of  common  Oriental  laborers,  due  to  the  restriction  of  their  immigration,  the 
Japanese  and  Chinese  contractors  are  becoming  of  less  importance.  The  average 
commission  is  said  to  be  from  3  per  cent  to  5  per  cent  of  all  earnings  of  each  indi- 
vidual in  the  gang.  The  padrone  system  still  exists  among  Mexican  laborers,  though 
to  what  extent  is  very  hard  to  ascertain.  Some  men  in  touch  with  the  situation  claim 
that  it  is  a  beneficent  system,  in  that  it  provides  a  way  by  which  an  ignorant  immi- 
grant is  taken  care  of  by  men  of  his  own  race  versed  in  the  ways  of  the  country. 

Agencies  charging  fees  and  operating  without  licenses  are,  of  course,  directly 
breaking  the  law.  Some  of  these  do  exist,  either  carrying  on  business  directly  or 
through  some  system  of  concealed  fees.  As  to  volume  of  business,  they  are  of  incon- 
siderable importance. 

Flagrant  abuses  by  these  sub  rosa  agencies  should,  of  course,  be  wiped  out.  The 
system  as  a  whole  is  beyond  any  possible  regulation.  A  law  prohibiting  saloons  from 
cashing  pay  checks  is  an  absolute  necessity.  Such  an  ordinance  is  now  in  force  in 
Los  Angeles  and  has  proved  to  be  of  value. 

THE  LABOR  UNION  AS  AN  EMPLOYMENT  AGENCY. 

Terming  a  labor  union  an  employment  agency  is  a  misnomer.  As  a  means  by 
which  men  secure  work  and  through  which  employers  secure  men,  they  should  be 
mentioned.  The  majority  of  California  towns  are  strongly  unionized,  Los  Angeles 
being  the  notable  exception.  Applications  for  men  from  employers  are  filled  in 
some  unions  according  to  priority  of  registration,  except  where  only  certain  men 
are  fitted  to  do  the  particular  work  called  for. 

Union  men,  members  both  of  trade  and  industrial  unions,  are  violently  opposed 
to  the  private  employment  agency  system.  Many  of  them  have  rules  prohibiting 
members  from  using  these  agencies  to  find  work,  and  all  have  an  unwritten  law 
against  it.  They  are  resorted  to  only  by  members  who  can  secure  work  in  no  other 
way,  or  who  are  forced  out  of  the  ranks  of  their  trade.  With  the  pressure  of  unem- 
ployment in  winter  union  men  often  resort  to  them. 

The  general  attitude  toward  federal  system  and  toward  a  free  state  system  appears 
to  be  one  of  indifference,  as  far  as  they  themselves  are  concerned.  They  feel  that 
for  their  purposes  they  are  unnecessary,  inasmuch  as  they  get  their  work  through 
their  union.  But  in  the  main  they  favor  the  abolition  of  the  "employment  shark" 
system  a.s  a  move  that  will  benefit  their  unorganized  brothers. 

SUCCESS    OF   STATE    REGULATION    OF    PRIVATE    EMPLOYMENT   AGENCIES. 

Have  the  present  regulations  as  carried  out  under  the  Labor  Commiss:oner  been  a 
success'.'  The  answer  depends  upon  the  point  of  view.  If  we  restrict  ourselves  to 
the  view  held  by  the  Labor  Commissioner  that  the  laws  of  1913  merely  intended 
that  all  private  agencies  should  be  brought  under  the  immediate  supervision  of  the 
Labor  Commissioner  and  that  open  abuses  and  frauds  be  eradicated,  then  the  present 
regulations  are  a  success.  But  if  we  accept  the  view  that  private  agencies  as  an 
integral  and  essential  part  of  the  social  organism  must  adequately  and  conscien- 
tiously fulfill  the  wider  duty  of  connecting  job  and  man  at  the  least  expenditure  of 
time  and  money  without  fraud  or  abuse,  then  the  present  regulations  are  far  from 
successful.  It  is  the  opinion  of  Commissioner  McLaughlin  that  no  system  of  private 
agencies  can  ever  be  a  success  in  this  larger  sense.  This  Commissioner  believes  that 
fraud,  misrepresentation,  and  extortion  are  inherent  qualities  in  our  private  system: 


33  COMMISSION    OP    IMMIGRATION    AND   HOUSING. 

that  it  is  next  to  impossible  to  get  sufficient  evidence  for  conviction  against  the 
agencies,  and  that  therefore  the  state  should  undertake  the  business.  The  important 
point  here  is  that  fraud  and  abuses  of  all  descriptions  are  ingrained  in  the  private 
system  and  can  not  be  eradicated.  It  is  likewise  the  opinion  of  all  persons  inter- 
viewed on  this  point,  including  many  employment  agents,  that  the  regulations  now 
in  effect  have  not  removed  and  will  not  remove  the  abuses  practiced  befoi'e  they  went 
into  operation.  The  only  solution  lies  in  the  establishment  of  municipal,  stan-.  or 
federal  bureaus  each  working  in  close  connection  with  the  other. 

SUGGESTED     IMPROVEMENTS    OF    REGULATIVE     MACHINERY. 

The  legal  powers  vested  in  the  Labor  Commissioner  of  California  for  the  ivsrnla- 
tion  of  employment  agenices  charging  fees  are  in  the  main  clear  and  sufficient.  The 
Commissioner  and  his  deputies  have  the  power  of  sheriffs  to  make  arrests  and  serve 
processes.  The  California  statutes  provide  for  the  appointment  of  an  attorney  whose 
duty  it  is  to  represent  the  Commission  in  all  cases  falling  within  its  jurisdiction. 

In  regard  to  the  organization  and  administration  of  the  regulative  machinery,  it 
was  the  opinon  of  the  Commissioner  of  Labor  that  the  present  system  needed  no 
improvement.  Complaints  are  brought  directly  to  the  office  of  the  Commissioner  by 
the  injured  party.  The  Commissioner  then  tells  the  agent  complained  against  to 
report  at  his  office.  The  facts  are  reviewed  and  the  settlement  made  at  once.  No- 
delay  is  incurred.  No  agent  has  refused  to  refund  a  fee  nor  pay  the  necessary 
expenses  of  the  worker  when  called  upon  to  do  so  by  the  Commission.  The  agents 
have  come  to  regard  the  office  of  the  Commissioner  as  a  place  of  fairness  and 
integrity.  Not  infrequently  an  agent  will  send  a  complainant  to  the  Commissioner 
rather  than  settle  the  dispute  in  his  own  office. 

That  a  high  license  would  bo  advisable  only  in  case  it  drove  a  great  many  of  the- 
smaller  agents  out  of  business,  is  the  opinion  of  the  Labor  Commissioner.  Many 
believe  that  the  present  bond  requirements  have  done  as  much  in  this  respect  ns  a 
higher  license.  Undoubtedly  a  higher  license  is  advisable  as  it  would  force  out  of 
business  the  small  agent,  with  his  attendant  abuses,  because  he  is  small.  The 
remaining  large  agents,  not  depending  upon  fraudulent  methods  for  an  existence. 
can  be  easily  regulated.  Their  efficiency  will  be  greater  than  in  the  present  system. 
A  worker  will  not  have  to  exhaust  his  strength  in  a  continuous  hunt  from  agency  to 
agency  for  his  job. 

The  power  to  revoke  licenses  is  not  now  clear.  This  is  perhaps  the  main  feature 
of  the  present  regulations  which  needs  immediate  attention.  The  Commissioner 
expressed  the  hope  that  the  next  legislature  will  give  him  absolute  powers  of  revoca- 
tion. This  in  connection  with  the  present  machinery  for  prosecutions  will  bring  the 
employment  agents  more  directly  and  completely  under  the  Commissioner's  personal 
supervision.  In  this  connection  it  might  be  stated  that  a  more  whole-hearted 
cooperation  is  desired  from  the  district  attorney  in  whose  county  prosecutions 
against  labor  agents  are  conducted. 

POSSIBILITIES    FOR    REGULATION. 

Assuming  that  one  of  these  alternatives  or  some  other  of  the  same  nature  is  acted 
upon,  several  features  of  the  private  agency  system  should  be  changed.  A  uniform 
system  of  bookkeeping  and  reports  should  be  kept  in  each  private  employment  office. 
Under  the  present  state  law,  it  is  the  duty  of  each  agent  to  register  the  names  of 
applicants  for  work  and  of  employers  seeking  help.  This  provision  could  be  utilized 
in  gathering  data  as  to  the  condition  of  the  labor  market,  the  number  of  available 
jobs,  kind  of  help  wanted,  etc.  This  data  should  be  sent  to  a  clearing  house  and 
published  in  bulletin  form,  similar  to  the  method  proposed  by  the  Industrial  Com- 
mission. At  present  these  registers  are  not  kept  in  accordance  with  the  law.  as 
there  is  no  means  of  distribution  of  this  information,  no  clearing  houses  being  in 
existence.  Where  prescribed  registers  are  used,  they  are  for  the  benefit  of  the  agent 
himself  and  merely  give  the  name  of  the  applicant  who  has  obtained  a  job  and  the 
employer  who  has  had  his  order  filled.  This  method  shows  an  absolute  misuTi'Ier- 


REPORT   ON   PROBLEM    OF    UNEMPLOYMENT.  39 

standing  of  the  essential  features  of  the  entire  system  of  employment  agencies,  as 
it  does  not  in  any  manner  take  the  steps  necessary  to  supervise  and  control  the 
laborer  or  the  employer. 

A  strict  system  of  inspection  of  all  agencies  should  be  instituted.  At  present, 
inspections  are  made  only  when  flagrant  cases  of  fraud  or  abuse  are  reported.  This 
means  that  few  agencies  ever  feel  the  pressure  of  rigid  inspection.  Even  the  methods 
of  detectives  might  have  to  be  employed  at  times.  Agencies  located  in  small  towns 
should  be  under  the  same  observation  as  those  where  offices  of  the  Labor  Commission 
are  not  established. 

The  personal  or  direct  contact  between  the  agent  and  the  regulating  power  must 
not  depend  upon  complaints  to  this  power,  as  at  present.  An  aggressive  system  of 
inspections  would  bring  all  agents  under  strict  supervision. 

Complainants  should  be  allowed  to  carry  their  disputes  to  some  local  person 
delegated  with  authority  to  handle  the  same.  That  these  complaints  should  be 
bandied  in  person  is  absolutely  essential  to  the  success  of  the  system.  Some  arrange- 
ment by  which  efficient  authorities,  state  or  federal,  are  located  in  every  city  and 
town  of  importance  and  are  readily  accessible  to  those  with  complaints  of  any  kind, 
should  be  provided  for. 

If  the  private  agencies  are  to  stay  in  business,  something  should  be  done  to 
eliminate  the  present  type  of  agents  and  clerks.  In  the  main,  these  men  are  ineffi- 
cient, unscientific,  unscrupulous,  and  uninformed  as  to  the  real  nature  of  their 
business,  considering  it  only  as  a  means  of  acquiring  money.  The  social  aspect  is 
neglected.  An  opportunity  for  selection  is  afforded  under  the  California  laws  at 
the  beginning  of  each  license  year.  Applications  for  license  could  be  refused 
undesirable  agents  and  only  the  type  of  man  desired  need  be  granted  a  license. 

A  uniform  fee  should  be  charged  and  every  agent  should  be  made  to  conform  to 
it  strictly.  Credit  fees  should  be  eliminated.  A  fixed  scale  or  maximum  percentage 
is  advisable.  All  fees  should  be  publicly  posted  in  the  office  of  the  agency. 

The  suggestion  that  each  agency  should  handle  only  one  type  of  labor  has  met 
with  some  approval.  The  question  of  determining  the  number  of  agencies  dealing 
with  each  particular  kind  of  labor  seems  insurmountable  if  favoritism  is  not  shown. 


40  COMMISSION    OF    IMMIGRATION    AND    HOUSING. 


APPENDIX  C-5. 

Recommendations   for    Legislation    Concerning    Private    Employment    Offices,   by 
Commission  of  Immigration  and    Housing   of  California. 

A.  Hi'jh  license. — The  great  prevalence  of  abuses  among  the  smaller  offices,  the 
great  degree  of  inefficiency  prevailing  among  these  agencies,  and  the  exceeding  diffi- 
culty of  enforcing  a  strict  system  of  regulation,  points  to  the  need  of  a  license  high 
enough  to  keep  out  any  agencies  but  those  operating  on  a  large  enough  scale  to  guar- 
antee efficiency  and  the  ease  of  regulation.    The  license  fee  for  agencies  in  cities  of  the 
first,  first  and  one  half,  and  second  class,  should  be  $100  per  annum ;  in  cities  of  the 
third  and  fourth  class,  $50  per  annum;  and  in  all  other  cities  and  towns,  $25  per 
annum.     If  a  comprehensive  system  of  state  agencies  be  established,  the  above  fees 
could  be  doubled. 

B.  Regulation  of  the  employer. — The  employer  should  be  made  to  refund  fees  and 
expenses  of  men  not  employed,  if  one  of  the  following  reasons  be  the  cause  thereof : 

1.  Duplication  of  orders  for  men  at  various  offices,  unless  each  agent  be  given  the 
names  of  the  other  agents  attempting  to  fill  the  same  order. 

2.  Serious   misrepresentation   by   the   employer  as   to   the   character,   duration   or 
accommodations  of  the  job. 

The  state  regulating  authority  should  be  given  power  to  compel  such  refund  by 
the  employer,  as  well  as  to  take  action  against  employers  acting  in  collusion  with 
employees  in  "fake  refund"  tricks. 

C.  Uniform  fee  schedule. — A  uniform  schedule  of  fees  to  be  charged  by  all  pri- 
vate employment  agencies  for  various  kinds  of  work,  should  be  worked  out  by  the 
state   regulating  authority,   and  power  to  enforce  the  law  providing  for  the  same 
vested  in  that  authority.     In  no  case  should  the  fee  for  day  labor  exceed  $2.00,  nor 
the  fee  for  jobs  paid  by  the  month  exceed  8  per  cent  of  the  first  month's  salary,  above 
any  charge  for  board.     Provided,  however,  that  regulating  authority  may  establish 
a  higher  schedule  of  fees  than  indicated  above  for  teachers',  nurses'  and  theatrical 
agencies,  and  agencies  supplying  office  help  exclusively. 

D.  Prohibition  of  credit  fees. — The  credit  fee  system  by  which  a  man  may  secure 
a  job  without  making  any  payment,  an  order  on  his  wages  being  sent  to  the  employer, 
works  a  hardship  on  both  the  employer  and  the  employment  agency,  and  leads  to 
many  abuses  by  employment  agent  and  applicant.    With  a  comprehensive  state  system 
of  free  offices  the  applicant  who  has  no  money  will  be  taken  care  of,  so  the  need  for 
a  credit  system  would  be  largely  done  away  with.  Such  a  prohibition  would,  moreover, 
give  a  competitive  advantage  to  state  offices,  an  advantage  that  would  be  great  at  the 
inception  of  such  a  system.     If  a  free  system  were  not  established,  such  a  prohibition 
would  not  be  advisable. 

E.  Introduction  card  or  letter. — Every  applicant  referred   to  a  position  by  an 
employment  agent  should  be  furnished  with  a  card  of  introduction,  giving  such  details 
as  to  the  nature  of  the  job,  including  name  of  employer,  duration,  hours,  wages,  etc.. 
as  the  regulating  authority  shall  demand.     A  letter  giving  this  informat'on  should 
I"    written  to  the  applicant  it  a  card  can  not  be  personally  given  to  him    (as  per 
attached   form  of  card).     This  should  be  made  with  carbon  duplicate;  copy  to  be 
kept  in  the  employment  office  for  reference.     Such  forms  should  be  in  English  and 
in  the  language  of  the  applicant  if  he  be  an  immigrant  alien. 

F.  Written  orders. — Before  an  employment  agent  refers  an  applicant  to  a  posi- 
tion, he  must  have  a  written  order  from  the  employer,  giving  full  details  as  to  the 
character  of  the  job ;  the  specific  information  to  be  demanded  to  be  prescribed  by  the 


REPORT   ON   PROBLEM   OF   UNEMPLOYMENT.  41 

state  regulating  authority.  Provided,  however,  that  men  may  be  referred  to  positions 
upon  a  call  by  telephone  or  telegraph,  if  the  employer  promises  to  confirm  the  order 
in  writing  within  two  days. 

G.  An  aggressive  method  of  inspection  to  be  instituted.  Every  agency,  whether 
in  large  cities  or  in  small  towns,  should  be  inspected  at  least  four  times  a  year. 

H.  Every  employment  agency,  whether  state  or  private,  to  keep  a  register  of  all 
applicants,  whether  given  jobs  or  not. 

I.  Everj"  employment  agency,  whether  state  or  private,  to  endeavor,  in  records, 
to  separate  the  employable  from  the  unemployable,  so  that  the  problems  of  the  bona 
fide  casual  laborer  may  be  accordingly  determined. 

J.  If  the  applicant  reports  to  the  employer  according  to  instructions  given  him 
by  the  employment  agency,  and  within  the  time  designated  by  said  agency,  and  if 
refused  employment,  then  said  agency  shall  refund  to  the  applicant  the  amount  of 
(a)  fee  paid;  (6)  the  fare  and  expenses  to  and  from  the  place  where  he  was 
instructed  to  report;  (c)  a  sum  for  the  time  lost,  according  to  the  rate  of  wages 
promised. 

K.  If  applicant  is  employed  but  discharged  within  ten  days  for  any  cause,  other 
than  his  inefficiency  or  because  the  employer  is  actually  reducing  his  working  force, 
the  employment  agency  shall  refund  to  the  applicant  (a)  the  fee  paid;  (b)  the  fare 
and  expenses  to  and  from  the  place  where  he  was  instructed  to  report.  Provided 
that  this  section  shall  not  apply  if  the  applicant  is  informed  in  writing,  which  he 
clearly  understands,  that  the  work  is  to  last  for  only  ten  days  or  a  shorter  time. 

L.  Make  it  a  misdemeanor  for  an  employment  agency  to  publish,  or  cause  to  be 
published,  any  fraudulent  or  misleading  information,  representation,  notice  or  adver- 
tisement regarding  employment  to  be  had,  kind  of  employment  to  be  had,  or  wages 
paid. 

M.  No  employment  agency  shall  divide  fees  with  any  superintendent,  manager, 
foreman,  or  other  employee  of  any  person  or  firm  to  whom  he  furnishes  employees. 
And  it  shall  be  a  misdemeanor  on  the  part  of  both  the  employment  agent  and  other 
employees  to  divide  such  fees.  Fine,  $500  and  six  months  imprisonment. 

N.  No  employment  agency  can  furnish  or  supply  laborers  to  any  firm  or  corpora- 
tion if  a  manager,  superintendent,  foreman,  or  other  employee  of  such  firm  or  cor- 
poration owns  stock  or  any  interest  in  such  employment  agency  where  a  fee  is 
charged.  Misdemeanor  on  part  of  employment  agent  and  the  owner  of  stock. 

O.  Any  misrepresentation  by  an  employment  agent  concerning  the  (a)  nature  of 
employment;  (b)  duration  of  employment;  (c)  place  of  employment;  (d)  wages 
paid,  shall  be  misdemeanor,  punishable  by  fine  of  $200.00,  one  half  of  which  shall  go 
to  person  to  whom  misrepresentation  is  made,  other  half  to  support  of  state  employ- 
ment agencies. 

P.  Pmj  checks,  cashing  of,  by  saloons. — The  cashing  of  pay  checks  by  saloons 
should  be  prohibited.  Power  to  enforce  such  a  law  to  be  vested  in  the  State  Labor 
Commissioner.  Some  of  the  worst  evils  arising  from  the  saloons  acting  as  sub  rosa 
employment  agencies  as  well  as  other  very  palpable  evils,  could  be  eliminated  by  such 
a  law.  An  ordinance  to  this  effect  has  worked  very  successfully  in  Los  Angeles. 


42  COMMISSION   OF   IMMIGRATION    AND   HOUSING. 

FORM    FOR    EMPLOYMENT   AGENCY. 

It  shall  be  the  duty  of  every  licensed  person  conducting  an  employment  agency 
to  give  to  every  applicant  for  employment,  from  whom  a  fee  shall  be  received,  a 
receipt  in  which  shall  be  stated  in  this  form. 

Order  No.  Receipt  No. 

NAME  OF  AGENCY. 

Street  and  number. 

Phone. 

(City) 191__ 

Received   from the   sum   of dollars,    for 

which  I  agree  to  furnish  correct  information  by  which 

shall   secure  employment   as 

with   located   at 

Under  these  conditions. 
Rate  of  wages  $ per board lodging 

( advanced 

Transportation    I  free 

I  refunded 

Hours  per 

Employment  authorized  by how when 

Report  for  position  to how when 

(Signed) 

Signature  of  applicant. 


REPORT   ON   PROBLEM    OF   UNEMPLOYMENT.  43 


APPENDIX  C-6. 

Brief  of  Reports  on  the  Orange  Industry  of  Central  California,  by  the  Commis- 
sion of  Immigration  and  Housing  of  California. 

Two  reports,  the  second  supplementary  to  the  first,  on  probably  the  most  impor- 
tant of  California  seasonal  industries,  the  harvesting  and  packing  of  the  orange  crop, 
are  unusually  complete  and  touch  on  every  phase  of  the  industry.  The  investiga- 
tion was  made  in  the  vicinity  of  Lindsay,  Tulare  County,  where  several  thousand 
persons  are  employed  and  the  conditions  found  there  are  typical  of  the  rest  of  the 
state  where  oranges  are  grown. 

There  are  two  classes  of  workers  in  the  orange  industry,  known  as  "packers"'  and 
"pickers."  The  former  are  largely  women  living  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  pack- 
ing houses  and  the  latter  made  up  of  mixed  races,  largely  migratory. 

Although  the  work  is  classed  as  seasonal,  it  has  been  made  to  last  from  six  to 
seven  months  each  year  by  growing  two  different  kinds  of  oranges,  Valencias  and 
navels,  ripening  in  different  seasons,  and  the  pay  is  regular  and  over  the  average. 
Working  conditions  and  sanitary  arrangements  are  good.  The  packers  are  almost 
exclusively  Americans,  or  fully  Americanized,  and  they  have  no  union  or  other 
organized  labor  movement.  This  is  an  instance  where,  in  a  seasonal  industry,  the 
labor  market  has  been  made  fairly  stable  by  rotating  the  crops,  training  the  work- 
ers, and  encouraging  their  return  by  offering  good  living  conditions. 

The  pickers  are  male  and  consist  of  the  migratory  class  as  a  rule.  Many  Japanese. 
Mexican  and  other  foreign  races  are  represented. 

There  is  usually  no  trouble  in  securing  help,  although  the  report  shows  that  at 
odd  times  there  is  a  scarcity  of  labor  and  a  system  of  state  labor  exchanges  would 
probably  solve  the  problem. 


44  COMMISSION   OF    IMMIGRATION    AND   HOUSING. 


APPENDIX  C-7. 

Condensed  Statement  of  a  Report  on  a  Lumber  Camp  in  the  Sierra  Nevada 
Mountains,  by  the  Commission  of  Immigration  and  Housing  of  California. 

The  report  deals  with  the  employment  of  some  350  men  at  the  lumber  camps 
and  mills  of  the  Hume-Bennett  Lumber  Company  at  Sanger,  Fresno  County,  and 
shows  a  very  satisfactory  condition  among  the  workers. 

The  season  is  from  May  1  to  November  1.  The  report  shows  a  most  satisfactory 
condition  in  regard  to  housing  and  feeding  of  mill  and  wood  workers  and  that  men 
willing  to  work  can  obtain  employment  in  the  woods  and  save  money,  because 
there  is  no  opportunity  to  spend  it. 

The  men  are  encouraged  to  return  each  season  and  a  large  percentage  do  so ; 
therefore,  a  more  or  less  regular  or  steady  working  force  as  to  personnel  is  main- 
tained. The  men  attribute  this  to  the  fact  that  they  are  well  treated  and  furnished 
with  good  living  conditions. 


REPORT   ON   PROBLEM    OF   UNEMPLOYMENT.  45 


APPENDIX  C— 8. 

Brief  of  Report  on  Alaska  Salmon  Fishing  Industry,  by  the  Commission  of 
Immigration  and  Housing  of  California. 

This  report  reveals  a  most  deplorable  contract  labor  situation  from  which  much 
trouble  is  bound  to  arise.  It  affects  directly  several  thousand  employees  of  the 
canneries,  and  indirectly  many  thousands  of  California's  laboring  men.  Seven 
thousand  men  are  shipped  from  and  return  to  California  each  year  for  the  Alaska 
fisheries. 

The  1,800  "Class  A"  men  in  the  fishing  industry  are  largely  Scandinavian,  and 
are  comparatively  well  paid  and  well  treated.  The  "Class  B"  men  are  all  immigrants. 
87  per  cent  being  illiterate,  only  7  per  cent  of  them  being  able  to  read  and  write 
English.  They  are  all  members  of  the  Alaska  Fishermen's  Union  and  receive  the 
.same  pay,  but  being  hired  under  the  contract  system  by  a  padrone,  are  subject  to 
much  exploitation  and  abuse.  They  fear  the  Italian  boss  and  can  not  be  made  to 
testify  against  him.  There  are  1,700  Chinese,  1.700  Japanese  and  1,200  mixed 
— Filipino,  Mexican  and  Porto  Ricans,  who  are  hired  by  a  Chinese  contractor,  who  has 
full  control  of  wages,  payments,  board,  etc. 

The  deplorable  condition  of  these  laborers  is  more  fully  set  forth  in  the  Fifteenth 
Biennial  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  of  the  State  of  California.  This 
and  other  reports  show  that  these  men  are  miserably  housed  and  fed  and  always 
mistreated  and  exploited.  During  the  winter  months  they  accentuate  the  housing 
and  unemployment  problem  in  San  Francisco.  They  do  much  to  swell  the  army  of 
vagrants  and  criminals  who  infest  California  in  the  winter  months. 

This  is  one  of  the  serious  problems  that  confronts  labor  and  immigration 
authorities  and  one  that  demands  immediate  attention. 


46  COMMISSION    OF    IMMIGRATION    AND   HOUSING. 


APPENDIX  C-9. 

Brief  of  Report  on  Southern  European  Farmers  in  the  Bay  Region,  by  the  Com- 
mission of  Immigration  and  Housing  of  California. 

This  is  ;i  limited  investigation  of  a  few  cases  in  a  limited  locality.  It  deals  with 
the  Italian,  Spanish,  Greek.  Austrian,  Portuguese  and  Russian  small  farmers. 

The  conclusions  reached  by  the  investigator  are : 

That  the  immigration  to  California  consists  almost  exclusively  of  farmers ;  that 
they  are  all  eager  to  become  landowners ;  that  foreign  farm  ownership  will  absorb 
a  large  amount  of  the  migratory  farm  labor,  and  tend  to  decrease  migratory  habits 
among  the  laborers  ;  that  inflated  land  values  and  the  inadequacy  of  farm  credits 
tend  to  retard  development  more  than  any  other  factor ;  that  it  is  important  that 
the  newly  arrived  immigrant  find  work  on  farms  before  coming  to  the  cities,  and 
that  dishonest  practice  by  real  estate  agents  and  owners  have  retarded  progress. 

The  recommendations  are : 

A  state  labor  exchange  and  the  establishment  of  some  system  to  enable  the 
immigrant  to  get  on  to  land,  such  as  agricultural  credit  banks  on  the  plan  of  those 
operating  successfully  in  France  and  Germany. 


REPORT   ON   PROBLEM    OF   UNEMPLOYMENT.  47 


APPENDIX  C-10. 

Statistical  Tables  from  Life  History  Schedules  Selected  at  Random  Among 
Casual  Laborers  in  California,  by  the  Commission  of  Immigration  and 
Housing  of  California. 

1.  Number  of  men  from  whom  histories  obtained,  222. 

2.  Age— 

16  to  20  years 5       2.3  % 

21'  to  25  years  37      17.0  % 

26  to  30  years 60     27.6  % 

31  to  35  years  34      15.7  % 

36  to  40  years 38      17.5  % 

41  to  45  years 17       7.8  % 

46  to  50  years  8       3.7  % 

51  to  55  years 7       3.2  % 

56  to  60  years  6       2.7  % 

61  to  65  years  3       1.3  % 

Over  65  years  ___ 1         .46% 

No  data  1         .46% 

3.  Marital  condition — 

A.  Number  that  have  been  married. 

(1)  Number  now  in  married  state  15       6.8  % 

(2)  Number  widowed  or  divorced 8       3.6  % 

(3)  Number  not  living  with  wives  . 1         .4  % 

B.  Number  unmarried  169      76.2  % 

C.  Number  from  whom  no  data  obtained 29     13.0  % 

4.  Nationality— (see  note  at  end). 

American  born  105     48.4  % 

Foreign  born  112      51.6  % 

Irish    15 

Swedish    14 

German 12 

English 9 

Italian   9 

Norwegian   7 

French    7 

Russian    6 

Canadian    5 

Finnish    4 

Danish    4 

Portuguese   3 

Mexican  3 

Welsh _  2 

Australian  2 

Belgian 2 

Greek  1 

Swiss   . -—  1 

Scotch  1 

Austrian   1 

Dutch 1 

Polish  Jew 1 

Spanish    1 

Bohemian   1 

Born  in  California  26      12.0  % 

5.  Political  status- 

United  States  citizens  136     61.3  % 

Aliens  with  first  papers  

Aliens  with  no  papers  52     62.0  % 

Total  aliens  84     37.8  % 

No  data  

Foreign  born,  naturalized 

Foreign  born,  not  naturalized  84      75.0  % 


48 


COMMISSION   OF    IMMIGRATION   AND   HOUSING. 


(].  ''Years  as  casual  laborer — (see  note  at  end). 

Under  6  years 90     41.5  % 

6  to  10  years 49     22.6  % 

11  to  15  years 30      13.8  % 

16  to  20  years 15       6.9  % 

21  to  25  years 7       3.2  % 

26  to  30  years 5       2.3  % 

31  to  35  years  3       1.4  % 

36  to  40  years 

41  to  45  years 1         .46% 

No  data  17       7.8% 

7.    Nature  of  last  regular  job- 
Teamsters    17 

Ranching 12 

Railroad  laborers 7 

Waiters    7 

Cooks    7 

Dredgermen 6 

Fishermen  .__ 6 

Longshoremen    5 

Machinists  5 

Ironworkers   5 

Lumberjacks 5 

Dishwashers   4 

Clerks  4 

Fruit  pickers  4 

Miners  4 

Bargemen  3 

Carpenters 3 

Electricians 3 

Muckers  3 

Steamboatmen 2 

Millworkers  2 

Painters    2 

Brickmakers  2 

Orange  pickers 2 

Sailors   2 

Firemen  2 

Sausagemaker  1 

Hay  baler 1 

Thrasher  1 

Molder    1 

Butcher    1 

Barber    1 

Horse  trainer  1 

Timekeeper   1 

Sheet  metal  worker  1 

Porter 1 

Cannery  hand  1 

Stableman  1 

Rugmaker . 1 

Lookout  in  gambling  joint  1 

Stonecutter    

Life  guard  

Chauffeur  __. — 

Orange  packer 

Gardener  

Elevator  man 1 

Tailor  

Peddler _ _ 

Bartender 

Brick  mason   1' 

Messenger 

Night  watchman 

Janitor    _                                                                 1 


REPORT   ON   PROBLEM   OF   UNEMPLOYMENT.  49 

Deck  hand  1 

Cigarmaker 1 

Donkey  flunkey 1 

Surveyor  1 

Hotel  worker 1 

Caretaker  1 

Baker 1 

Common  laborers  56 

No  data  ..  8 


Total  number  of  kinds  of  last  regular  jobs 61 

8.  Location  of  last  regular  job — 

In  same  locality  as  questioned _  59  26.6  % 

Elsewhere  in  California 105  47.1  % 

On  Pacific  coast  outside  of  California 17  7.7  % 

Elsewhere  in  the  United  States 30  13.5  % 

Outside  of  the  United  States 3  1.5  % 

No    data   .  8  3.6  % 

9.  Earnings  per  day  at  last  regular  job — 

Under  $2.00 33  14.8  % 

$2.00  to  $3.00 124  56.0  % 

$3.00  to  $4.00  37  16.7  % 

$4.00  to  $5.00  7  3.1  % 

$5.00  to  $6.00  1  .4% 

10.  Duration  of  last  regular  job- 

Less  than  two  weeks 25  11.1  % 

Two  weeks  to  one  month 31  14.0  % 

One  month  to  three  months 35  15.8  % 

Three  months  to  six  months 31  14.0  % 

Six  months  to  one  year 35  15.8  % 

One  year  to  three  years 31  14.0  % 

Over  three  years 18  8.0  % 

No  data  16  7.3  % 

11.  Cause  of  leaving  last  regular  job- 

Left  voluntarily  78  35.0  % 

Work  gave  out 65  29.3  % 

Discharged  for  other  reasons _.  31  14.0  % 

Locked  out  6  2.7  % 

Left  on  account  of  strike 4  1.8  % 

Accidents  or  sickness 9  4.1  % 

Arrested 2  0.9  % 

Still  working  14  6.3  % 

No  data 13  5.9  % 

12.  *Earniugs  at  best  time  per  day— 

Under  $2.00 12  5.5  % 

.*•_'.!  10  to  $3.00 77  35.5  % 

$3.00  to  $4.00 66  30.4  % 

$4.00  to  $5.00 31  14.3  % 

$5.00  to  $6.00 8  3.7  % 

Over  $6.00 8  3.7  % 

No  data 15  6.9  % 

13.  Work  at  which  earnings  were  made- 

Miners  14 

Teams  tors    

Longshoremen 13 

Lumberjacks 9 

Ranchers  

Harvesters 6 

Cooks   6 

Fishing 6 


50  COMMISSION   OF    IMMIGRATION   AND   HOUSING. 

13.    Work  at  which  earnings  were  made — continued. 

Ironworkers  fi 

Sailors  3 

Dredgermen  1 

Muckers  4 

Waiters   4 

Carpenters  __ 


Butchers  

Steamboat  men 

Engineers  

Cannery  hands  ', 

Painters . 

Railroad  labor '. 

Electrical  engineers  . 

Brickmakers  •_' 

Orange  pickers  

Bakers    2 

Machinists  2 

Boilermakers  2 

Watchmen 2 

Firemen  2 

Gardener  1 

Molder 1 

Janitor 1 

Barber 1 

Grocery  clerk 1 

Lumber  clerk 1 

Clerk  1 

Sheet  metal  worker 1 

Pattern  maker  1 

Cement  worker 1 

Sheep  shearer 1 

Shoemaker  1 

Train  master 1 

Rug  maker 1 

Business 1 

Stableman 1 

Stonecutter 1 

Chauffeur  1 

Orange  packer 

Grading  foreman 

Fruit  picker  1 

Cook's  helper 

Blacksmith 1 

Peddler 

Tailor  

Ticket  seller 

Gunman  

Brick  mason 

Office  work 

Porter 

Machinist's  helper  

Mill  worker 

Glass  worker  

Pottery  hand 

Cigarmaker 

Surveying  crew 

Solicitor 

Common  laborers 

No  data  

Total  number  of  jobs  represented 66 


REPORT   ON   PROBLEM    OP   UNEMPLOYMENT. 


51 


14.    First  jobs— 

Ranch  work 30 

Sailors   -.. 15 

Teamsters 13 

Mill  work 9 

Lumberjacks 7 

Clerks  6 

Miners  6 

Newsboys    6 

Restaurant  workers  5 

Machinists  55 

Longshoremen 4 

Errand  boys 4 

Railroad  construction  workers 3 

Carpenters 3 

Ironworkers  3 

Railroad  workers  3 

Bakers  helpers 3 

Factory  hand 3 

Butchers   2 

Firemen  2 

Electricians    2 

Packing  house  workers 2 

Fishermen 2 

Porters 2 

Mess  boys 2 

Printers  2 

Molder 1 

Dredgennan 1 

Peddler 1 

Sheet  metal  worker 1 

Patternmaker  1 

Laundry  hand  1 

Hostler 1 

Tobacco  worker 1 

Rugmaker    1 

Boilermaker  1 

Chauffeur  1 

Cook    1 

Stonecutter  

Cook's  helper 

Blacksmith    1 

Tailor  

« >ffice  boy  

Independent  business 

Painter 

Breaker  boy  

Machinist's  helper  

Glass  worker  

Pottery  hand  

•  "i  Carmaker  

Mucker  

Locksmith   

Lumber  yard  hand 

Gardener  

Baker 

'  Vimmon  laborers  

No  data - 17 

Total  number  of  jobs  represented 56 


52  COMMISSION   OF   IMMIGRATION   AND   HOUSING. 

15.  Training  for  first  jobs- 

No  training  116  .32.3  % 

Have  served  apprenticeship 60  27.0  % 

Farm  training  for  ranch  work 27  12.2  % 

School  education  1  .4  % 

Studied  for  doctor 1  .4  % 

Training  school 1  .4  % 

No  data 16  7.3  % 

16.  Membership  in  labor  organizations- 

Belong  or  have  belonged  to  trade  union   95  42.7  % 

Belong  or  have  belonged  to  the  I.  W.  W 18  8.1  % 

Non-members    114  51.4  % 

No  data 4  1.8  % 

Percentage  represents  the  proportion  of  the  whole  num- 
ber. Some  men  were  members  of  both  a  union  and  the 
I.  W.  W. 

17.  Lodge  membership- 

Belonging  or  haA'e  belonged  to  a  lodge 49  22.0  % 

Non-members    131  59.1  % 

No  data  42  18.9  % 

18.  Church  membership- 

Members  of  a  Protestant  church ._  64  28.8  % 

Members  of  the  Catholic  church 41  18.5  % 

Members  of  the  Jewish  church  __ 1  .4  % 

Members  of  the  Mormon  church 1  .4  % 

Non-members    _ 85  38.4  % 

No  data 30  13.5  % 

19.  Membership  in  political  parties- 

Profess  membership  83  37.4  % 

Non-members    107  48.2  % 

No  data 32  14.4  % 

20.  Years  in  California— if  born  out  of  state,  per  cent  of  total- 

Under  6  years 127  58.5  % 

6  to  10  years 36  16.6  % 

11  to  15  years 14  6.4  % 

16  to  20  years 1  .46% 

21  to  25  years 3  1.4  % 

26  to  30  years 4  1.8  % 

31  to  35  years 3  1.4  % 

36  to  40  years 

41  to  45  years 1  .46% 

No  data  2  .92% 

21.  Tears  in  United  States— if  foreign  born— per  cent  of  foreign 

born — 

Under  6  years  — — 48  42.8  % 

6  to  10  years 30  26.7  % 

11  to  15  years 12  10.7  % 

16  to  20  years - 6  5.3  % 

21  to  25  years — 2  1.7  % 

26  to  30  years - 9  8.0  % 

31  to  35  years 2  1.7  % 

36  to  40  years — 1  .89% 

No  data  . 2  1.7  % 

22    Age  at  which  left  school— 

No  schooling 12  5.5  % 

6  to  10  years 12  5.5  % 

11  to  15  years 118  54.4  % 

16  to  20  years - -  45  20.7  % 

No  data   .  30  13.8  % 


REPORT   ON   PROBLEM    OF   UNEMPLOYMENT.  53 

23.  Relations  with  parents  and  relatives— 

A.  Number  visiting  relatives 26  11.7  % 

B.  Number  writing  to  relatives 80  36.0  % 

C.  Number  maintaining  relations  , 91  41.0  % 

D.  No  relatives 14  6.3  % 

E.  No  data 11  5.0  % 

24.  Time  worked  during  last  twelAre  months— 

A.  Under  4  months 16  7.3  % 

B.  4  to  6  months 66  29.7  % 

C.  7  to  9  months 95  42.7  '•; 

D.  10  months 17  7.7% 

E.  11  months 5  2.2  % 

F.  12  months _ 7  3.1% 

25.  Average  number  of  months  worked  per  year — 

Under  3  months _ 3  1.4  % 

4  to  6  months _  49  22.6  % 

7  to  9  months 91  41.9  <; 

10  months —  28  12.9  % 

11  months  10  4.6  % 

12  months  11  5.1  % 

No  data 25  11.5  % 

26.  Status  in  regard  to  independence  of  position — 

A.  Number  with  others  dependent  upon  them 21  9.5  c;r 

B.  Number  with  none  dependent  upon  them.. 192  86.4  % 

G.  No  data 9  4.1  % 

27.  Patronage  of  employment  agencies — 

A.  Number  patronizing  employment  agencies 116  52.3  % 

B.  Number  refusing  to  patronize  employment  agencies 97  43.6  % 

C.  No  data 9  4.1  % 

28.  Physical  condition — 

A.  Number  in  good  physical  condition 97  43.6  % 

B.  Number  in  fair  physical  condition 68  30.6  % 

O.    Number  in  bad  physical  condition 54  24.3  % 

D.  No  data 3  1.5  % 

29.  Personal  habits— 

A.  Use  of  alcohol  and  drugs 171  77.0  % 

1.  Number  using  alcohol 171  77.0  % 

2.  Number  using  tobacco  and  snuff... 189  85.0  % 

3.  Number  using  drugs  (opium,  cocaine,  etc.) 6  2.7  % 

4.  Number  of  non-users 11  5.0  % 

5.  No  data 10  4.5  % 

B.  Personal  cleanliness — 

1.  Number  clean  in  clothes  and  person 89  40.0  % 

2.  Number  unclean  in  clothes  and  person... 48  21.4  % 

3.  Number  from  whom  no  data  obtained 86  38.6  % 

30.  Jail  record — 

A.  Number  admitting  jail  record 57  25.6  % 

B.  Number  professing  never  to  have  been  in  jail 1  IS  tifi.7  '. 

C.  No  data 17  7.7  % 

31.  Plans  for  future— 

A.  Number  looking  for  steady  work 62  28.0  % 

B.  Number  planning  to  continue  "floating" 56  25.2  r/< 

O.    Number  with  no  plans  for  future. 94  42.3  % 

D.  No  data _ 10  4.5  % 

32.  Attitude  on  political  and  economic  questions- 

Radical  80  36.9  % 

Conservative 56  25.8  % 

Indifferent - —  61  28.1  % 

No  data 20  9.2  % 

Only  those  are  classed  as  "Radical"  who  believe  in  complete  destruction, 
either  through  political  or  direct  action,  of  the  present  social  system. 


•Statistics  on  these  points  were  compiled  from  217  Life  Histories. 


54  COMMISSION   OF    IMMIGRATION    AND    HOUSING. 


APPENDIX  C— 11. 

Tabulation   of    Register  of   Complaints   of  the   Commission    of    Immigration   and 

Housing   of   California. 

The  total  number  of  complaints  received  and  filed  from  January  20th 
to  November  27,  1914,  inclusive,  was  1,379. 

The  Complaint  Bureau  of  the  Commission,  however,  was  not  organ- 
ized and  in  active  operation  until  April  25,  1914 ;  the  Sacramento  com- 
plaint office  was  not  opened  until  August  1,  1914,  and  the  Los  Angeles 
complaint  office  has  been  open  only  since  August  15,  1914;  therefore, 
this  table,  in  fact,  shows  only  the  results  of  a  maximum  period  of  about 
seven  months. 

In  San  Francisco 765 

In  Sacramento 537 

In  Los  Angeles 77 

Up  to  November  27th  there  were  still  pending  or  unsettled,  from 
various  causes,  242  cases.  They  are  as  follows : 

Miscellaneous  170 

Curtis-Howell  Aviation  Company 36 

Ravenswood  Land  Company 6 

Alta  California  Land  Company 15 

C.  Giaovanni 6 

West  Sacramento  Land  Company 9 


Total  — 242 

The  complaints  of  fraud  and  crime  were  disposed  of  as  follows : 

Convictions _ 4 

Adjustments  52 

Compromised  — 20 

Fees  returned 20 

Claims  paid  in  full  or  settled 52 


Total  148 

Other  complaints  were  disposed  of  as  follows : 

Police  department 9 

Public  prosecutor 9 

Referred  to  an  attorney 11 

Legal  advice  given 68 

Board  of  Health — _ __ 4 

Board  of  Medical  Examiners 21 

United  States  Immigration  Commissioner 

Industrial  Accident  Commission 45 

State  Labor  Commissioner 251 

Inspector  of  Weights  and  Measures 2 

State  Railroad  Commission  

United  States  Shipping  Commissioner 1 

Camp  Inspection  Department  30 

Referred  to  employment  agency 

Sent  to  charitable  institutions 19 

General  information  given 290 

Dropped  by  complainant 

Miscellaneous  ..  95 


Total 


REPORT   ON   PROBLEM    OF   UNEMPLOYMENT.  55 

TRANSCRIPT   OF   COMPLAINT    REGISTER,    SHOWING    NATURE   OF 
COMPLAINTS. 

Attorney  defrauding  client 

Assuming  to  be  an  attorney 

Accidents  (industrial) 9-~> 

Auto  driver  overcharge  

Auto  accidents  2 

Abuse  and  threats ._ 

Admission  to  hospital  desired 

Abatement  of  nuisances 2 

Annoyance  of  tramps 1 

Blacklisting    3 

Business  frauds  102 

Breach  of  promise 2 

Boarding  house  frauds 1 

Business  misrepresentations 50 

Breach  of  contract 12 

Contributing  to  delinquency 9 

Cruelty  to  animals 2 

Conversion    3 

Charity  frauds  2 

Complaints  against  police 2 

Complaints  against   landlords    2 

Detention  on  Angel  Island 2 

Destitution    17 

Desertion 4 

Deportations   7 

Detention  of  children 1 

Employment  desired  

Employment  agency  frauds 85 

Exclusion  from  unions 2 

Ejections    1 

Evictions    2 

Exorbitant  railroad  rates 1 

Excessive  storage  charges 2 

Financial  assistance 3 

Fraud  in  automatic  piano  sales 4 

Failure  to  provide 4 

Fraudulent  interpreter 4 

Gambling  frauds  4 

Hospital  com]) la  in ts  

Hop  pickers'  bonus  trouble 6 

Insanitary  living  conditions 14 

Information  wanted 172 

Immigration  detention 

Illegal  medical  practice 24 

Immorality  12 

Insanitary   labor  camps 19 

Impure  food  3 

Improper  guardianship 

Interference  with  witness 1 

Inadequate  camp  water  supply 10 

Interpreter  desired  

Incompetent  dentist  2 

Insurance  fraud 13 

Land  frauds  

Legal   advice   (52 

Libel  1 

Lost  letters    

Lost  baggage 

Labor  bureau  troubles 

Lottery  frauds  

Mailing  indecent  pictures 

Misrepresentation  in  sale  of  transportation  tickets 

Marital  complaints  

Malpractice  

Misrepresented   work   

Malicious  prosecution  

Naturalization   fi 

Neglect  of  children 


56  COMMISSION   OF   IMMIGRATION    AND   HOUSING. 

Probation  desired 1 

Physical  abuse  1 

Partnership  difficulties  3 

Pawnshop  frauds  1 

Pension  claim  1 

Personal  property  lost 6 

Papers  withheld 

Prostitution  6 

Refusal  to  pay  loans  4 

Refusal  to  surrender  property  3 

Refusal  to  pay  debts 

Refusal  to  deliver  gas 1 

Refunds  on  tickets 

Seduction  2 

Sanitary  conditions  of  ship 

Saloon  complaints 1 

Short  weights  3 

Short  hop   weights   9 

Spite  fence 3 

Sickness  3 

Suspicious  organizations  

Tenement  law  violation 1 

Thefts  

Transfer  company  frauds 3 

Time  check  abuse 4 

Unjust  detention  as  insane 1 

Unlawful  detention  of  children 1 

Unjust  fines 

Undesirable  aliens  7 

Undertaker's  extortion 1 1 

Unfit  medical  referees 2 

Unjustified  detention  

Unjustified  arrests '2 

Wage  claims  218 

White  slavery  5 

Worthless  checks 

Worthless  contracts  8 

Total  .  1,379 


REPORT   ON   PROBLEM    OP   UNEMPLOYMENT.  57 


APPENDIX  C-12. 

Statistical   Summary   of  Camp    Returns  of  801    Camps. 
INSPECTED    BY   COMMISSION   OF   IMMIGRATION   AND    HOUSING   OF 

CALIFORNIA. 

Permanent  camps  545 

Temporary  camps  256 

Capacity— 

With  present  capacity 745 

No  data  as  to  present  capacity 56 

With  ultimate  capacity 776 

No  data  as  to  ultimate  capacity 25 

Women  and  Children — 

Camps  with  women 261 

With  doubtful  returns  as  to  women 86 

Camps  with  no  women 454 

Camps  with  children 137 

With  doubtful  returns  as  to  children  .__ 86 

With  no  children 578 

Sleeping  Quarters — 
Where  sleeping  quarters  and  living  conditions  of  alien  and  American 

laborers  are  separated 90 

Where  sleeping  quarters  and  living  conditions  are  not  separated 433 

Where  laborers  are  of  one  nationality 197 

No  data  as  to  separation  of  sleeping  quarters,  etc 81 

Bathing  Facilities- 
Camps  with  no  bathing  facilities 320 

Camps  with  tubs,  shower  baths,  or  both 341 

Where  bathing  facilities  are  located  on  stream,  lake,  bay,  etc 105 

No  data  as  to  bathing  facilities 35 

Toilets- 
Camps  with  fly-proof  toilets 184 

With  slightly  exposed  toilets 172 

With  filthy  toilets 331 

With  no  toilets 104 

No  data  as  to  toilets 10 

Separation  of  Toilets  for  Sexes- 
Camps  with  separate  toilets  for  sexes 93 

With  no  separation  of  toilets  for  sexes 125 

No  data  as  to  separation  of  toilets 129 

Note.— Total,  347.    Where  returns  on  women  doubtful  (see  above) 
entered  here  as  no  data. 

Washing  Facilities- 
Camps  with  adequate  washing  facilities 635 

With  inadequate  washing  facilities. 125 

No  data  as  to  washing  facilities 41 

Stables- 
Camps  with  stables  or  corrals 502 

Camps  with  no  stables  or  corrals 295 

No  data  as  to  stables  and  corrals 4 


58  COMMISSION   OF    IMMIGRATION    AND    HOUSING. 

Distance  of  Stables  from  Kitchen — 

Where  stables  are  less  than  100  yards  from  kitchen lit' 

\Vh«>re  stables  are  more  than  10(1  yards  from  kitchen 26fi 

No  data  as  to  distance  of  stables 44 

Manure  Disposal — 

Camps  with  sanitary  methods  of  manure  disposal 241 

Camps  without  sanitary  methods j:',7 

No  data  as  to  manure  disposal  24 

Note. — Total,  502.    See  number  of  stables. 

Screening  on  Kitchen  and  Dining  Quarters- 
Camps  with  screening  on  kitchen  and  dining  quarters 3!M 

With  no  screening 288 

No  data  as  to  screening 119 

Garbage  Disposal — 

Camps  with  sanitary  methods  of  garbage  disposal 537 

With  insanitary  methods 199 

No  data  on  methods  of  disposal 6G 

Garbage  Containers- 
Camps  with  fly-proof  garbage  containers 329 

With  uncovered  containers HiO 

With  no  containers 165 

No  data  as  to  containers 1  !7 

Cubic  Air  Capacity  in  Sleeping  Quarters- 
Camps  with  less  than  350  cubic  feet  of  air  per  sleeper 144 

With  350  to  500  cubic  feet  of  air  per  sleeper 168 

With  over  500  cubic  feet  of  air  per  sleeper 350 

No  data  as  to  cubic  feet  of  air  per  sleeper 139 

General  Classification- 
Number  of  camps  classed  GOOD  by  inspector 249 

Number  of  camps  classed  PAIR  by  inspector 301 

Number  of  camps  classed  BAD  by  inspector 248 

No  data  on  classification  ..                                          3 


REPORT   ON   PROBLEM    OF    UNEMPLOYMENT.  59 


APPENDIX  C—13. 

Synopsis  of   Report   on  the   Labor   Market   in   Sonoma   and    Mendocino   Counties, 
by    the    Commission    of    Immigration    and     Housing    of    California. 

SONOMA  COUNTY. 

The  county  is  almost  entirely  an  agricultural  one  and  the  manufacturing  activi- 
ties in  it  may  be  neglected.  The  situation  as  to  manufacturing  is  the  same  for 
both  Mendocino  and  Yuba  Counties.  In  Sonoma  the  chief  interests  are  in  fruits 
;in<l  berries  and  fruit  canning  and  packing. 

1.  The  demand  for  labor  naturally  shows  strongly  marked  seasonal  variations. 
S<>  far  as  fruit  and  berry  picking  is  concerned,  the  demand  is  reduced  to  zero  during 
half  the  year,  from  December  to  May.      In  the  canning  and  packing  plants,  a  con- 
siderable  amount   of   labor  is   needed   during   a  more   extended   period,    many   fruit 
packing    establishments    running    nearly    the    whole    year    in    prosperous    years    and 
when  the  crops  are  good.     In  all  these  cases  there  is  a  considerable  portion  of  each 
year  when  there  is  but  a  very  slight,  even  a  negligible,  demand  for  labor. 

2.  Not  only  are  there  the  expected  "slow"  months  in  even  the  best  years,  but 
also  there  are  extremely  wide  variations  within  the  active  season  for  fruit  picking, 
canning    and    packing.      A    certain    and    predictable    cause    of    these    subseasonal 
changes  is  seen  in  the  fact  that  the  different  fruits  and  berries  ripen  at  different 
periods,  and  that  one  fruit  may   ripen  before  pickers  can  leave  an  earlier  one,  or 
may  ripen  so  late  as  to  leave  a  slack  period  when  there  is  not  enough  picking  for 
the  pickers  on  hand.     An  equally  certain  but  unpredictable  cause  of  variation   is 
the    wide    variation    in    the    time   from   year   to   year   that   a   given    fruit    may   be 
expected   to  ripen,  and  in  the  amount  of  the  crop  to  be  figured  upon  when  it  does 
ripen. 

3.  For  the  fruit  and  berry  picking,  local  help    (families,  very  largely),   is  used 
almost   entirely   on    the    small    orchards   and    berry    patches,    and    to   a    considerable 
extent  on  the  large  places.     In  so  far  as  this  is  done,  no  very  serious  labor  problem 
arises. 

4.  The  supply  of  labor,  however,  for  all  the  ranches  and  orchards  where  picking 
is  done  on  a  large  scale,  and  in  the  canneries  and  fruit  packing  plants,  must  and 
always  will  be  very  largely  an  imported  supply.     This  supply   is  made  of  a  great 
variety  of  types,  the  most  predominant  of  which  are  as  follows: 

Family   picking   groups   from   various   cities   and   towns   in   other   parts   of 
the  state.     Many  of  these  are  foreigners,  Portuguese  and  Japanese  especially  : 
Floating    laborers    who    come    from    periods    of    unemployment    or    various 
winter  jobs ; 

Groups  of  boys  from  welfare  institutions  or  industrial  homes.  These 
picking  groups  under  the  supervision  of  their  own  superintendent,  take  the 
contract  for  the  picking  season,  camp  out  on  the  place,  and  the  whole  crop 
is  handled  in  this  fashion  by  these  contract  pickers  exclusively.  In  this  case, 
too,  there  is  no  social  loss  in  the  way  of  unemployment,  as  the  vacation 
periods  of  the  institutions  concerned  are  adjusted  so  that  the  boys  make  the 
picking  season  their  vacation.  This  plan  is  growing  in  favor  in  the  Gold 
Ridge  berry  district  of  Sonoma  County. 

Local  help.  Young  people  of  both  sexes  from  the  neighborhood  and  also  a 
good  many  adults. 

r>.  On  the  whole,  the  supply  of  fruit  and  berry  workers  (including  pickers, 
cannery  employees,  and  fruit  packers),  is  ample  to  supply  the  demand,  although 
there  are  times  when  growers  in  a  certain  locality  cannot  get  enough  pickers.  Even 
when  this  is  so.  however,  there  are  usually  numerous  other  places  where  there  is  a 
surplus  of  workers  which  cannot  be  employed. 


60  COMMISSION    OF   IMMIGRATION   AND   HOUSING. 

6.  There  are  no  employment  agencies  of  any  sort  whatever  in  the  county.     The- 
growers  get  their  help  in  a  very  hit-and-miss  fashion  and  seem  to  bank  on  the  usual 
excess  of  the  supply  of  pickers.      Some  of  them  advertise   in   the   San   Francisco 
papers  and  often  in  the  local  papers.     They  very  rarely  resort  to  the  employment 
agencies  of  San  Francisco. 

7.  The  demand   is  almost  entirely   for  children,   women   and   such   men   as   are 
not  able  to  get  other  work.     This  is  especially  true  of  the  picking.     Fruit  picking 
is  not  an  ideal  means  of  livelihood  for  an  able-bodied  man. 

In  the  canneries  and  fruit  packing  establishments,  a  few  men  are  needed  as 
superintendents  and  to  tend  machines,  but  the  great  bulk  of  the  force  is  composed 
of  women. 

MENDOCINO   COUNTY. 

The  county  contains  almost  no  urban  territory.  There  are  three  towns,  ranging 
in  population  from  twelve  hundred  to  thirty-five  hundred.  The  area  of  the  county 
is  thirty-four  hundred  square  miles.  Chief  industries :  Lumbering,  railroad  con- 
struction and  agriculture. 

Of  these,  the  railroad  construction  work  has  for  the  past  few  years  been  the 
most  important  from  the  labor  market  point  of  view.  The  work  is,  of  course,  not 
of  the  same  permanent  nature  as  that  of  the  two  primary  extractive  industries  of 
lumbering  construction  and  agriculture,  but  just  now  it  merits  attention. 

1.  The   work   involves   the   construction   of   about   two    hundred    miles    of    new 
track    for    the    Willits-Eureka    extension    of    the    North    Western    Pacific.      During 
the   past   year  there   has   been   a   very   large   force   of   workmen    (chiefly   unskilled 
laborers)   engaged  on  this  construction.     The  number  has  varied  from  five  hundred 
to  three  thousand.     The  greater  part  of  the  work  has  been  done  by  contract  by 
the   Utah   Construction   Company,   which   firm   alone   has   at   some   periods   had   as 
many  as  two  thousand  laborers  at  work  here. 

2.  The    number   of   men    who    have    been    engaged    on    this    construction    work 
undoubtedly    runs   high    into   thousands   each   year.     That    is,    the   average    laborer 
works  but  a  very  short  time.     Some  idea  of  the  constant  flux  in  the  labor  ranks 
here  as  well  as  the  extent  of  it,  may  be  had  from  the  fact  that  the  North  Western 
Pacific  Company  is  now  and  has  been  for  some  time  sending  on  an  average  forty 
men  a  day  to  replenish  their  own  working  force  of  one  thousand  men  on  this  piece 
of   construction.     This   means   that   more   than   ten   thousand   men   are   hired   each 
year  to  keep  up  a  working  gang  of  one  thousand.      These  one  thousand  men  work 
right   alongside   the   Utah   Construction   Company's   men.      They   are   usually   more 
steady — or  less  unsteady — than  the  Utah  Construction  Company's  men,  so  that  it 
is  pretty  clear  that  men  are  constantly  quitting  and  others  being  taken  on. 

Evidence  from  various  sources  indicates  two  chief  reasons  for  this  flow  of  men 
onto  the  job  and  off  again. 

(a)  Sanitary  and  wage  conditions.  Hospital  charges.  Poll  tax  assess- 
ment. Excessive  charges  for  inferior  board,  etc. 

(ft)  The  desire  to  quit  so  soon  as  a  small  "stake"  has  been  accumulated. 
In  connection  with  this,  the  very  human  distaste  for  long  hours  of  toilsome 
and  monotonous  work  and  the  desire  to  drown  the  curse  of  it  in  liquor. 

3.  The  evidences  and  stories  of  employment  agency  graft  are  here  exceedingly 
numerous.     Evidence  of  collusion  between  construction  bosses  and  superintendents 
is  abundant  but  not  conclusive,  and  extremely  hard  to  prove.     It  is  significant  that 
several  of  the  camps  hire  all  their  men  exclusively  from  particular  agencies  in  San 
Francisco  and  will  not  take  on  men  who  come  from  other  agencies  or  men   wha 
"beat  their  way"  up  to  the  camp  and  strike  for  the  job  on  their  own  initiative. 

4.  This  year,  especially   this  summer,   the   demand  has  been  very  considerably 
falling  off,  on  account  of  the  fact  that  the  work  is  nearing  completion.     For  this 
reason   the   supply   has   been   especially   excessive   and   the   unemployment   situation 
far  more  acute. 


REPORT   ON   PROBLEM   OP   UNEMPLOYMENT.  61 

The  lumbering  industry  is  one  requiring  far  more  skilled  labor  than  does  con- 
struction work.  In  fact,  almost  all  workers  in  logging  camps  and  saw  mills  are 
more  than  unskilled  laborers.  Most  of  the  operations  in  a  logging  camp,  tree 
"barking,"  "falling,"  "timber  rigging,"  etc.,  requires  a  certain  degree  of  skill.  The 
same  applies  to  the  saw  mills  and  to  a  less  degree  to  the  lumber  yards.  It  is 
noticeable  that  the  lumber  men  are  more  steady  and  stay  on  the  jobs  better  than 
the  bulk  of  construction  workers.  Comparatively  few  floaters  drift  into  lumbers. 

The  industry  is  seasonal,  especially  the  logging  and  milling.  In  the  yards  the 
labor  force  is  more  uniform  throughout  the  year.  In  the  logging  camps,  the  busy 
season  is  from  December  to  March.  Most  of  the  camps  continue  to  run  through 
the  rest  of  the  year,  but  the  labor  force  is  reduced  to  a  minimum. 

The  supply  of  labor  for  lumber  work  is  secured  almost  entirely  through  personal 
application  and  arrangement  with  the  men,  a  great  proportion  of  whom  are  known 
to  the  employers.  Employment  agencies  or  newspaper  advertising  are  almost  never 
resorted  to.  There  is  less  trouble  here  with  an  excessive  labor  supply  than  in  the 
construction  camps.  During  the  winter  season  there  is  very  seldom  any  difficulty 
about  maintaining  full  crews,  but  in  tbe  summer  many  agricultural  openings  for 
labor  make  it  difficult  very  often  to  secure  even  the  needed  minimum  for  the 
logging  camps.  The  lumber  companies  are  sometimes  embarrassed  by  a  shortage 
of  help,  but  it  is  seldom  or  never  serious. 


62  COMMISSION   OF    IMMIGRATION    AND    HOl'slMi. 


APPENDIX  D. 

Report  on   Employment  Bureaus  by  Committee  on  Employment  Bureaus,  Section 
on  Unemployment,  Commonwealth  Club  of  California. 

(Pages  678  to  680.) 

MK.  WOBMSEK:  The  causes  that  have  brought  about  the  establishment  of  free 
employment  bureaus  in  nineteen  states  of  the  union  are  practically  identical  with 
those  that  call  for  such  establishments  in  our  own  state,  namely,  the  abuses  of 
private  employment  agencies,  the  scarcity  of  hands  for  the  feathering  of  crops,  the 
congestion  of  the  unemployed  during  the  certain  periods  of  the  year  in  the  large 
cities,  and  the  need  for  collecting  and  disseminating  statistics  relative  to  unemploy- 
ment and  opportunities  for  employment. 

The  private  employment  agencies,  purely  commercial  enterprises,  and  selfish  in 
their  aims,  cannot  be  depended  upon  for  the  gathering  of  information  about  the 
places  where  work  may  be  had,  or  for  the  distribution  of  this  information  to  those 
in  need  of  it.  For  this  purpose  there  is  need  for  a  centralized  organization  to 
which  can  be  brought  all  inquiries  for  labor  and  all  applications  for  employment — in 
a  word,  an  employment  clearing  house.  The  existence  of  many  private  labor  agencies 
defeats  this  very  purpose  of  centralization,  where  employer  and  worker  may  find  one 
another,  as  in  the  haphazard  unorganized  workings  of  the  private  agents,  demand 
for  help  is  frequently  registered  at  one  place  and  applicants  for  work  at  another. 
The  fee,  often  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  service  rendered,  and  equally  often  not 
procurable  by  the  applicant,  is  another  factor  against  the  efficiency  of  private 
bureaus. 

The  voters  of  Washington  have  just  adopted,  by  a  substantial  majority,  a  law 
forbidding  employment  offices  from  collecting  a  fee  from  an  employee.  They  may, 
if  they  can,  collect  from  the  employer.  It  is  expected,  however,  that  this  measure 
will  make  an  end  of  the  private  employment  office. 

With  the  opening  of  the  Panama  Canal  the  establishment  of  free  employment 
offices  becomes  more  than  ever  urgent.  It  is  well  known  that  many  private  agencies 
take  advantage  of  the  ignorance  of  the  foreign  immigrant  wrhose  lack  of  knowledge 
of  our  language  and  customs  makes  him  an  easy  prey  to  the  exploiter.  It  seems 
obvious  that  if  this  class  of  labor  is  admitted  to  our  state,  it  should  be  protected  from 
exploitation  and  provided  with  free  information  regarding  the  market  for  this  labor. 

The  fruitgrower  and  all  employers  of  agricultural  labor  would  be  enormously 
benefited  by  such  free  bureaus.  At  their  most  critical  seasons  it  is  often  impossible 
for  them  to  secure  hands  to  handle  their  crops,  and  under  the  present  lack  of  system 
there  is  no  place  where  they  can  apply  for  help.  Through  a  system  of  cooperation 
between  the  agricultural  districts  and  the  free  labor  offices  of  the  cities,  agriculturists 
would  be  relieved  from  this  difficulty  and  placed  in  immediate  touch  with  a  reliable 
source  of  supply. 

The  Wisconsin  Commission  supplied  the  farms  with  approximately  3,000  laborers 
in  1913.  This  work  was  accomplished  principally  through  the  cooperation  of  the 
state's  country  banks.  It  is  proposed  to  follow  this  method  in  our  own  state  for 
supplying  fruit  and  farming  districts  with  laborers  through  an  arrangement  with  a 
bank  in  each  town  to  accept  orders  for  help  from  agriculturists,  and  then  mail  or 
telephone  them  to  the  nearest  free  employment  office. 

Of  the  nineteen  states  that  have  established  free  offices,  Ohio,  Massachusetts  and 
Wisconsin  may  be  mentioned  as  being  the  most  progressive.  Wisconsin  has  four 
offices,  the  most  important  of  which,  in  Milwaukee,  found  position  in  1913  for 
15,600  out  of  29,300  applicants,  at  a  cost  of  only  43  cents  for  each  position  secured. 
A  thoroughly  organized  system  of  public  employment  exchanges,  as  the  English  call 
them,  is  to  be  found  in  Great  Britain,  where  there  were  in  operation  in  1913,  430 


REPORT   ON   PROBLEM    OP   UNEMPLOYMENT.  63 

exchanges.  The  function  of  these  is  to  collect  and  distribute  information  to  employers 
and  employees,  regarding  demand  and  supply  in  the  labor  market.  Germany  has 
in  operation  323  exchanges  conducted  on  most  efficient  lines.  Many  of  these  combine 
social  features  with  their  regular  work  of  placing  employer  and  employee  into  com- 
munication with  one  another.  One  especial  social  feature  should  be  embodied  in  any 
plan  that  may  be  outlined  for  California,  that  is.  a  commodious  reading  room, 
stocked  with  standard  books,  newspapers  and  maga/im's.  an  attractive  waiting  room 
for  applicants,  pending  the  securing  of  another  job. 

It  might  be  added  that  France,  Switzerland  and  other  countries  of  Europe  are 
operating  free  labor  exchanges  with  equal  success. 

The  fear  that  by  furnishing  free  service  in  finding  labor  the  state  might  under- 
mine the  self-reliance  of  the  workman  has  proved  groundless.  A  system  that  shortens 
the  out-of-work  period  for  any  man  and  enables  him  to  find  a  job  quickly  if  he  loses 
his  place,  makes  for  independence. 

Your  Committee  therefore  recommends  the  establishment  of  public  employment 
bureaus  in  California,  and  offers  the  following  outline  of  the  provisions  of  a  measure 
that  should  be  urged  before  the  coining  session  of  the  legislature  : 

1.  The   bureaus   to  be   managed   and   controlled   by   the   Commission    on   Housing 
and  Immigration. 

2.  An   advisory   committee   of   fifteen    to   be   appointed   for   each   bureau    by   the 
Governor,  each  member  to  serve  two  years  and  without  compensation. 

3.  The   advisory   committee   to    investigate   the   affairs   of   the   local    bureau   and 
submit  reports  and  recommendations  to  the  Commission  on  Housing  and  Immigra- 
tion, which  shall  make  rules  for  the  bureaus  with  a  view  of  obtaining  efficiency  in 
conduct  of  same. 

4.  Certain  social  features  to  be  provided  for  those  seeking  employment,  such  as 
reading  rooms,  daily  newspapers  and  magazines,  so  as  to  make  the  bureau  attractive, 
and  enable  it  to  furnish  competent  and  desirable  help  to  employers. 

5.  An   appropriation   of  $50,000   to   establish   two   offices,   one   at   San   Francisco 
and  one  at  Los  Angeles. 

S.  I.  AVoRMSER.  Chun-man. 
THEODORE  JOHNSOX. 
J.  E.  BAKER. 


COMMISSION   OF   IMMIGRATION   AND   HOUSING. 


APPENDIX  E. 

Joint    Resolution    for   the    Appointment   of   a    National    Marketing    Commission. 

(H.  J.  Res.  344,  Sixty-third  Congress,  second  session.) 

IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES. 

September  10,  1914. 

Mr.  Goodwin  of  Arkansas  introduced  the  following  joint  resolution  ;  which  was 
referred  to  the  Committee  on  Agriculture  and  ordered  to  be  printed.  Joint  resolu- 
tion for  the  appointment  of  a  National  Marketing  Commission. 

WHEREAS,  It  is  patent  that  there  are  defects  in  the  economic  system  of  the 
United  States  which  affect  adversely  the  producers  and  the  consumers  of  agricultural 
products ;  and 

WHEREAS,  These  defects  have  been  accentuated  by  the  European  war,  and  to  a 
degree  justifying  the  recent  utterances  of  the  President  of  the  United  States  in  the 
matter  of  the  high  cost  of  living ;  and 

WHEREAS,  Various  attempts  have  been  made  from  time  to  time  to  overcome  these 
defects,  mainly  through  non-governmental  agencies,  and  recently  under  governmental 
agency  under  the  Bureau  of  Marketing  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture ;  and 

WHEREAS,  Experience  has,  however,  proven  that  the  solution  of  this  question  is 
not  to  be  found  in  non-governmental  agencies  nor  is  it  to  be  found  in  a  governmental 
agency.  It  is  to  be  found  in  a  semiofficial  governmental  agency,  as  is  here  proposed, 
as  witness  the  success  in  the  European  countries  of  such  a  system,  a  system  which 
has  swept  aside  the  trusts  in  food  products  and  which  renders  the  trust  an  impossi- 
bility ;  and 

WHEREAS,  The  present  abnormally  high  prices  for  food  products  not  alone  offers 
an  opportune  time  for  the  establishment  of  a  semiofficial  governmental  agency  as  a 
means  for  the  temporary  solution  of  this  problem  but  also  for  the  organization  of  the 
agricultural  forces  of  the  United  States  on  the  lines  indicated  as  a  means  for  the 
permanent  solution  of  this  problem  ;  Now,  therefore,  be  it 

Resolved,  "by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States  of 
America  in  Congress  assembled,  That  the  President  be  authorized  and  requested  to 
appoint  a  National  Marketing  Commission  to  be  composed  of  twenty-nine  members, 
fifteen  of  whom  shall  be  farmers  and  fourteen  of  whom  shall  be  selected  with  reference 
to  their  eminence  in  commerce,  law,  finance,  and  transportation. 

Section  2.  That  such  National  Marketing  Commission  shall  meet  in  the  City  of 
Washington  at  a  time  designated  by  the  President  and  organize  by  the  election  of 
officers,  and  adopt  a  plan  of  action  for  the  effective  organization  of  the  states, 
counties  and  localities  of  the  United  States  for  the  economic  distribution  of  the 
products  of  the  farm,  with  power  to  act  in  so  far  only  as  affecting  individuals  and 
organizations  that  shall  elect  to  become  a  part  of  this  national  marketing  system. 


REPORT   ON   PROBLEM    OF    UNEMPLOYMENT.  65 


APPENDIX  F. 

Brief  of  Report  on  Home  Education  by  the  Commission  of  Immigration  and 

Housing  of  California. 

The  general  housing  and  social  surveys  conducted  by  the  Commission  of  Immigra- 
tion and  Housing  of  California,  have  shown  that : 

The  immigrant  mother  who  does  not  speak  English  is  even  more  helpless  than 
the  man,  for  even  his  failures  give  him  education  and  slowly  help  him  to  adjust 
himself  to  the  new  life.  With  the  woman  in  her  poor  home  there  are  few  points 
of  contact  with  educational  opportunity. 

The  Americanization  of  the  children  in  the  public  schools  often  adds  to  her 
difficulties.  The  child  takes  command  of  the  home  and  becomes  ashamed  of  the 
•mother.  By  statistics  we  find  that  this  is  adding  to  our  delinquency  and  filling  our 
juvenile  courts. 

The  quickest  and  surest  way  of  dealing  with  this  problem  is  by  educating  the 
mother  in  our  language,  our  laws  and  our  standards  of  living.  For  this  purpose  it 
would  seem  to  be  necessary  to  provide  some  kind  of  visiting  teachers  who  will,  as 
rapidly  as  possible,  connect  these  mothers  with  the  public  schools  and  our  civic  life. 

The  whole  subject  of  immigrant  education  holds  tremendous  possibilities  and 
•should  be  carefully  standardized  and  supervised.  As  the  object  of  the  Immigration 
•Commission  is  to  devise  ways  to  assimilate  the  incoming  mass,  it  can  not  lay  too 
much  stress  upon  ultimate  citizenship  for  both  men  and  women. 


66  COMMISSION    OF    IMMIGRATION    AND    HOUSING. 


APPENDIX  G. 

The  following  is  quoted  from  aii  address  made  by  Mr.  John  1'.  McLaughlin,  Com- 
missioner of  the  State  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  before  the  Conference  of  State 
Immigration,  Land  and  Labor  Officials  held  in  Washington.  I).  C..  November  1(1  and 
17,  1911 : 

"California,  until  recently,  has  been  a  state  of  large  land  holdings,  due  to  the  fact 
that  when  the  United  States  acquired  its  western  possessions  it  recognized  as  valid 
the  Spanish  land  grants.  These  land  grants — of  which  there  are  about  000 — con- 
tained immense  areas.  When  agriculture  succeeded  gold  mining,  some  of  the  owners 
turned  to  cultivating  these  lands,  while  others  held  them  and  are  still  holding  them 
until  such  time  as  they  shall  be  divided  up  into  small  farms.  This  led  to  two  prob- 
lems that  have  confronted  the  people  of  California  for  the  past  thirty  or  forty  years. 
The  former  called  for  a  large  amount  of  cheap  labor,  while  the  latter  prevented  the 
American  farmer  from  the  eastern  states  and  the  European  immigrant  agriculturists 
from  obtaining  small  acreages  at  reasonable  prices.'' 

"Probably  the  most  important  point  in  farming  in  California,  and  the  one  I  desire 
to  call  your  particular  attention  to.  is  that  it  is  highly  specialized.  It  was  early 
demonstrated  that  certain  crops  could  be  grown  to  great  advantage  in  certain  locali- 
ties, with  the  result  that  practically  everybody  in  that  locality  went  into  the  raising 
of  that  particular  crop,  thus  calling  for  a  large  amount  of  labor  during  the  season 
when  such  crop  was  harvested." 

"An  important  point  regarding  white  farm  labor  in  California  is  that  they  are  not 
shown  the  respect  that,  in  my  estimation,  is  due  them.  This  is  accounted  for  largely  by 
the  fact  that  the  short  period  of  time  they  work  on  any  one  farm  does  not  seem  to 
justify  the  owner  in  providing  accommodations  for  them,  with  the  result  that  they 
are  required  to  carry  their  blankets  on  their  backs  and  use  the  sky  for  a  roof.  This 
condition  is  not  conducive  to  the  development  of  a  good  class  of  farm  labor,  but 
rather  to  a  class  of  'hoboes.'  For  six  months  of  the  year  they  have  the  sheriff 
chasing  them  out  of  town  for  refusing  to  work  and  the  other  six  months  they  get 
chased  out  of  t&wn  for  asking  for  work.  Personally,  I  sympathize  with  the  man 
who  is  migrating  from  place  to  place,  sometimes  looking  for  work  and  at  other  times 
trying  to  dodge  the  tax  collector  or  the  sheriff.  Perhaps,  I  can  not  help  that,  owing 
to  the  fact  that  my  life  has  been  spent  in  close  contact  with  the  man  who  toils." 
"At  the  last  session  of  the  legislature  a  bill  was  introduced  providing  for  a  free 
employment  bureau,  but  owing  to  the  fact  that  it  did  not  carry  with  it  an  appro- 
pr'ation,  the  Governor  did  not  see  fit  to  sign  it.  However,  we  have  hopes  that  it 
will  be  provided  for  by  the  next  legislature,  and  I  know  the  Governor  is  inclined  to 
favor  it  as  an  experiment.  A  free  employment  bureau  would  be  of  invaluable 
assistance  in  securing  work  upon  the  farms  of  our  state  for  the  incoming 
immigrants." 


REPORT   ON   PROBLEM    OF    UNEMPLOYMENT.  67 


REPORT  ON  A  PLAN  FOR  TEMPORARY  RELIEF. 


SACRAMENTO,  CALIFORNIA, 

December  9,  1914. 
To  His  Excellency, 

HIRAM  AY.  JOHNSON,  Governor, 

Sacramento,  California. 

DEAR  SIR:  In  the  following  pages  we  present  a  tentative  plan  for 
dealing  with  the  destitute  unemployed  in  the  state  during  the  season 
which  has  now  begun. 

While  this  is  presented  in  compliance  with  your  written  and  oral 
requests  for  suggestions  on  the  unemployment  problem,  it  is  entirely 
separate  from  the  report  we  have  submitted  this  day  on  the  question  of 
the  ultimate  solution  of  the  unemployment  problem. 

Suggestions   for   a    Method    of    Dealing    with   the    Destitute    Unemployed    During 

the  Winter  of  1914-1915. 

An  entirely  separate  and  distinct  problem  is  the  question  as  to  how 
to  handle  the  unemployed  of  the  state  during  the  coming  winter. 
There  is  every  indication  that  we  shall  have  many  roving,  unemployed 
and  destitute  men  in  the  state. 

Since  any  possible  state  legislation  looking  toward  an  alleviation  of 
the  situation  could  not  become  effective  in  time  to  meet  the  needs  of 
this  winter,  the  burden  of  the  problem  must  rest  upon  the  different 
communities  and  municipalities,  and  they  must  deal  with  the  problem 
locally.  However,  we  deem  it  advisable  that  some  uniformity  should 
be  established  in  the  method  of  handling  the  various  unemployed 
groups,  and  therefore  suggest  that  some  existing  state  board  or  a  spe- 
cial, representative  committee,  to  be  appointed  by  your  Excellency, 
undertake  the  formulation  of  some  plan  of  action  and  urge  the  adop- 
tion of  the  plan  by  the  various  authorities.  It  would  seem  that  the 
work  of  meeting  the  problem  this  winter  is  largely  a  work  of  charity, 
therefore  we  suggest  that  this  task  be  undertaken  by  the  State  Board 
of  Charities  and  Corrections,  or  a  special  committee  appointed  by 
your  Excellency  for  this  purpose. 

Merely  as  a  tentative  suggestion  we  submit  the  following  general 
program  which  such  a  state  board  or  committee  might  follow : 

I.  It  is  essential  that  the  various  local  authorities  be  first  impressed 
with  the  fact  that  the  practice  of  driving  the  unemployed  out  of  one 
town  and  on  to  the  next  is  not  a  solution  but  an  aggravation.  It  has 
been  the  custom  to  employ  these  tactics  in  the  past,  and  this  treatment 
has  resulted  in  the  development  of  a  spirit  of  rebellion  and  anarchy 


68  COMMISSION   OF    IMMIGRATION    AND    HOUSING. 

in  the  unemployed,  leading  them  to  form  into  rovingj  incorrigible 
"armies."  Merely  passing  these  "armies"  on  from  one  town  to  an- 
other creates  a  vicious  circle  throughout  the  state  and  encourages  the 
members  in  the  acquisition  of  wandering,  irresponsible  habits.  These 
restless,  roving  groups  are  breeding  places  for  petty  crimes,  and  the 
problem  of  prevention  and  control  by  the  state  is  made  more  difficult 
because  the  offenders  are  transient  and  ever  moving. 

Therefore  each  municipality  or  community,  in  proportion  to  its  pop- 
ulation and  facilities  for  charity  work,  should  bear  the  burden  of  pro- 
viding for  the  immediate  needs  of  the  unemployed  in  the  state  during 
the  coming  winter. 

II.  However,  after  the  local  authorities  are  persuaded  to  aid  in  the 
attempt  to  stem  the  restless,  swaying  tide  and  to  establish  some  sem- 
blance of  stability,  careful  and  discriminating  methods  must  be  worked 
out  for  providing  relief. 

The  mere  announcement  that  all  California  municipalities  are  to  care 
for  the  unemployed  would  bring  hordes  of  applicants  for  charity  from 
all  the  western  states,  eager  to  spend  a  winter  in  our  mild  climate,  and 
many  who  are  not  in  genuine  need  would  be  tempted  to  try  their  luck 
at  enjoying  our  munificence.  In  order  to  provide  against  such  a  pre- 
dicament any  scheme  that  is  devised  to  meet  the  situation  should  include 
the  strict  application  of  a  work  test.  The  board  or  committee  which 
your  Excellency  might  designate  to  handle  this  matter  could  render 
incalculable  service  to  the  state  by  carrying  on  a  nation-wide  campaign 
of  publicity,  warning: 

(a)  The  employable  unemployed  that  there  is  no  work  to  be  had  in 
California;  and  (b)  the  unemployable  vagrants,  that  there  will  be  a 
rigorous  application  of  the  work  test  in  all  relief  or  aid  provided. 

In  order  to  show  that  people  interested  in  this  problem  are  unani- 
mously of  the  opinion  that  a  uniform  and  discriminating  method  must 
be  adopted,  we  have  appended  to  this  report  a  program  in  concise 
form,  drawn  up  at  a  recent  national  conference  in  New  York  of  exec- 
utives of  general  charitable  societies.  This  program  has  been  proposed 
to  the  authorities  in  Chicago  by  Mr.  Eugene  T.  Lies,  general  superin- 
tendent of  the  United  Charities  of  Chicago. 

III.  As  a  basis  for  discussion  and  action  by  any  board  or  com- 
mittee your  Excellency  might  appoint  to  put  in  operation  a  uniform 
plan,  as  we  have  suggested,  Ave  submit  the  following  concrete  sugges- 
tion: 

(a)  The  City  Council,  or  governing  body,  in  every  incorporated 
city  or  town  should  be  urged  to  establish  a  municipal  lodging  house, 
furnishing  sleeping  quarters  and  food. 


REPORT   ON   PROBLEM    OP   UNEMPLOYMENT.  69 

1.  All  homeless  and  destitute  men  in  the  community  who  apply 
voluntarily  should  be  furnished  accommodation  in  return  for  work 
for  a  certain  number  of  hours  a  day.     Provision  should  be  made  for 
registering  all  these  unemployed  and  destitute  men  by  a  given  date. 
This  would  give  a  census  and  set  a  time  limit  for  applicants.     The 
work  referred  to  could  be  in  the  form  of  labor  on  the  streets  and  roads, 
cleaning  up  vacant  lots,  work  in  public  buildings  and  institutions,  etc. 
The  result  of  this  work  would  not  meet  the  cost  to  the  municipality, 
but  the  cost  of  caring  for  these  men  must  ultimately  be  borne  by  some 
organization  or  individuals,  and  the  loss  would  be  more  equitably  dis- 
tributed than  if  it  were  placed  upon  the  private  charitable  agencies  or 
philanthropic  individuals,  who  (as  we  point  out  below)  have  a  suffi- 
ciently difficult  task  in  caring  for  destitute  resident  families. 

2.  All  homeless  men  who  are  brought  into  court  and  convicted  as 
vagrants,  merely  because  they  have  no  means  of  support,  should  be 
given  suspended  sentences  and  sent  to  the  municipal  lodging  house, 
and  also  put  to  work.     If  such  men  break  this  semi-parole  they  should 
be  sent  to  jail  and  put  at  enforced  work. 

(b)  The  Associated  Charities  of  the  different  communities  should 
be  awakened  to  the  critical  problem  at  hand  and  urged  to  organize 
carefully  for  the  coming  season.     These  organizations  should  be  advised 
to  provide  adequate  funds,  and  organize  volunteer  personal  service  to 
caiv  1'or   destitute  resident  families.     The  attention  of  these  private 
organizations  should  be  directed  entirely  to  the  needy  residents,  and 
only  incidentally  should  they  aid  the  municipality  in  providing  for 
the  homeless  destitute. 

(c)  Tn  those  cities  that  have  no  Associated  Charities  organization 
(such  as  Sacramento)  strong  pressure  should  be  brought  to  bear  upon 
the  citizens  to  organize  one. 

(d)  Specialized  charities,  churches,  social  settlements,  etc.,  should 
be  urged  to  make  additional  efforts  to  meet  the  emergencies  of  the 
season  and  to  continue  the  work  in  their  distinct  fields  with  redoubled 
efforts.     Past  experience  has  shown  that  such  organizations  are  apt  to 
become  panic-stricken  and  to  even  curtail  their  work  and  throw  it  off 
on  larger  and  more  general  organizations. 


NOTE — If  the  municipal  lodging  house  becomes  overcrowded  the  homeless  men 
should  be  sent  to  the  Associated  Charities,  or  other  agency,  having  a  "wood  yard." 
or  some  sort  of  work  test. 


70  COMMISSION   OF    IMMIGRATION   AND   HOUSING. 

(e)  Looking  more  toward  industrial  relief  measures,  all  state  and 
local  public  departments  should  be  encouraged  to  enlarge  their  work 
wherever  possible,  such  as  state  highway  and  county  construction, 
sewer  construction,  erection  of  public  buildings,  etc.  The  commence- 
ment of  public  work  for  which  appropriations  have  been  voted  might 
be  hastened;  and  public  work  which  is  usually  done  in  the  summer 
season  might  be  done  in  the  winter,  where  the  climate  permits. 

In  conclusion  we  respectfully  suggest  that  if  your  Excellency  deems 
it  wise  to  attempt  to  formulate  a  plan  for  uniform  action  throughout 
the  state  in  this  matter,  more  immediate  and  satisfactory  results  might 
be  obtained  by  a  special  committee  than  by  any  existing  state  board. 
Other  business  of  state  would  necessarily  demand  the  attention  of  any 
existing  board,  while  a  committee  appointed  especially  for  the  purpose 
could  concentrate  its  efforts  upon  this  one  problem.  This  is  a  ques- 
tion of  great  moment,  and  we  feel  that  your  Excellency  could  request 
some  of  the  state's  ablest  citizens  to  serve  upon  this  committee  and,  in 
this  emergency,  to  devote  their  entire  time  and  thought  to  this  work. 

If  action  is  to  be  taken  along  the  lines  herein  suggested,  it  is  obviously 
essential  that  the  task  be  undertaken  at  once. 

Respectfully  submitted. 

EDWARD  J.  HANNA, 
MRS.  FRANK  A.   GIBSON, 
PAUL  SCHARRENBERG, 
SIMON  J.  LUBIN, 

Commissioners. 


NOTE. — A  survey  could  be  made  by  the  state  board  or  committee  of  the  possi- 
bilities in  this  connection  and  definite  recommendations  made  to  the  different 
municipalities  and  counties. 

NOTE. — On  December  18,  1914,  Governor  Johnson  designated  the  Commission  of 
Immigration  and  Housing  to  act  in  behalf  of  the  state  in  carrying  out  the  program 
suggested  in  the  above  communication. 


REPORT   ON   PROBLEM    OF    UNEMPLOYMENT.  71 


APPENDIX  H. 

The  Chicago    Program. 

Program  for  relieving  and  heading  off  unemployment,  as  adopted  at  a  conference 
of  executives  of  general  charitable  societies,  recently  held  in  New  York  City,  in  the 
form  presented  to  the  municipal  authorities  in  Chicago  by  Eugene  T.  Lies,  general 
superintendent  of  the  United  Charities  of  Chicago : 

1.     Philanthropic    Measures. 

A.  Discourage  such  things  as  soup  kitchens  and  bread  lines  for  the  unemployed, 
since   they  are  mass  methods,  as  a  rule  undiscriminating,  and  do  more  harm  than 
good. 

B.  Discourage  the  creation  of  new  charitable  machinery  to  fill  a  temporary  need. 
1  [«•!)(•«•  let  the  city  council  avoid  appropriating  a  large  fund  for  charitable  purposes 
this    winter.      Since   the   very   announcement   of  such   an   appropriation   would    very 
likely  defeat  its  purpose,  for  it  would  bring  hordes  of  applicants  from  every  direction 
outside  the  city  and  many  people  in  the  city  who  are  not  in  genuine  need  would  also 
be  tempted  to  try  their  luck  at  getting  a  share  of  the  money.     In  other  words,   it 
would  mean  a  congestion  of  applicants,  a  large  force  to  handle  them,  and  undiscrimi- 
nating treatment     Furthermore,  it  would  be  exceedingly  difficult  to  keep  politics  out 
of  the  scheme. 

1  tat  her.  encourage  existing  public  and  private  agencies  to  expand  and  strengthen 
their  machinery  if  necessary.  Let  the  county  board  put  larger  means  at  the  disposal 
of  the  county  agent,  and  let  the  general  public  give  adequately  in  funds  and  volunteer, 
personal  service  to  the  private  organizations  that  have  proved  their  efficiency  and 
reliability  through  the  years  and  that  are  necessary  to  supplement  the  work  of  the 
county,  doing  these  many  things  both  in  the  way  of  material  relief  and  personal 
service  called  for  by  the  limitations  in  public  official  charity  departments.  Further- 
more, public  appropriations  out  of  the  tax  funds  to  subsidize  private  societies  would 
be  unwise. 

C.  Let  the  private  charities  take  pains  to  avoid  one  of  the  mistakes  often  made 
in  the  past  of  advertising  that  they  are  about  to  raise  large  funds  to  take  care  of 
the  unemployed  for  the  same  reasons  as  stated  with  reference  to  the  announcement  of 
lar^r  publ'c  appropriations. 

D.  Adequate  preparation  should  be  made  to  take  care  of  such  homeless  men  as 
may  properly  claim  the  city  as  their  residence.     This  may  mean  planning  to  build 
or  enlarge  municipal  lodging  house  facilities  both  as  to  sleeping  quarters  and  food. 
It  also  means  proper  equipment  of  men  with  training  in  social  work  to  deal  fittingly 
with   each   applicant  according   to  his   peculiar  needs,   physical,   mental,   moral   and 
economic. 

r.y  all  means  a  work  test  should  be  applied.  This  can  be  in  the  form  of  labor 
on  the  streets  or  odd  jobs  in  public  institutions  so  many  hours  a  day  for  so  many 
days'  accommodation  at  the  municipal  lodging  house.  Such  adequate  facilities  to  care 
for  tliis  <lnss  means  suppression  of  beggary  all  over  the  city,  prevention  of  clogging 
of  the  machinery  of  private  agencies,  which  have  all  they  can  do  to  look  after  resident 
poor  families,  and  prevention  of  depredations  of  all  kinds  by  men  grown  desperate  on 
account  of  their  condition. 

E.  Let  the  churches,   the  smaller  relief  societies,  and   the  specialized  charities 
throughout  the  city  continue  to  function  in  their  usual   way  with  the  unfortunates 
who  properly  are  their  charges  rather  than  deliberately  dump  them  upon  the  general 
relief  agencies,  as  they  are  tempted  to  do  in  an  emergency  like  the  present.     Let  each 
continue  to  do  its  proper  part  of  the  task  confronting  us  all  and  the  task  will  be 
properly  done. 


72  COMMISSION    OF    IMMIGRATION   AND   HOUSING. 

2.     Unemployment    Measures. 

A.  Bring  home  to  all  private  employers  of  labor  their  patriotic  and  humane  duty 
to  keep  on  the  pay  roll  all  their  workers  as  long  as  possible  into  the  winter  season,  or 
if  they  must  curtail,  then  to  put  all  or  most  of  the  men  on  part  time,  giving  them  at 
least  a  subsistence  income  for  themselves  and  families.    If  some  men  must  actually  be 
cut  off  from  the  pay  roll,  employers  could  in  many  instances  provide  sufficient  relief 
to  the  genuinely  needy  ones  among  them.     Furthermore,  some  employers  might  find  it 
possible  at  this  time  to  make  some  much  needed  improvements  in  or  about  their 
plants  such  as  painting,  cleaning,  repairing,  clearing  and  beautifying  grounds,  thus 
absorbing  some  of  their  men  who  otherwise  would  be  idle.     All  such  measures  will 
mean  the  conserving  of  efficiency  and  physical  well  being  of  employees  for  the  time 
of  returning  prosperity. 

B.  Study   existing   public  employment   agencies   to   see   if   they   are   functioning 
efficiently  at  a  time  like  this  and  if  found  not  to  be,  see  if  they  can  be  strengthened. 
If  for  any  reason,  this  is  impossible,  then  establish  on  a  basis  that  is  in  accord  with 
the  best  expert  opinion  available  a  supplementary  public  agency  that  will  be  capable 
of  doing  this  work  of  bringing  as  many  men  as  possible  who  are  out  of  employment 
in  touch  with  whatever  jobs  are  actually  available,  whether  in  the  city  or  outside 
of  it.     The  Wisconsin  system  suggests  the  method. 

C.  Encourage  the  women   citizens   who   are   householders   to   undertake   at   this 
time  as  much  cleaning,  whitewashing  and  improvement  of  yards  and  lawns  as  possible, 
and  call  upon  the  charity  offices,  state  employment  offices  and  the  municipal  lodging 
house  for  men  to  do  the  odd  jobs.     Many  men  could  be  tided  over  short  periods  in 
this  way. 

D.  Let  the  public  departments  arrange  as  far  as  is  possible  to  continue  work 
now  in  progress  to  a  more  distant  date  than  is  usually  done,  rather  than  merely 
follow  precedent  as  to  the  time  of  cessation  of  such  work.  This  will  mean  continuing 
hundreds  of  men  on  an  independent  footing,  conserving  manhood,  and  keep  them  away 
possibly  altogether  from  charity  offices. 

E.  Let  public  departments  begin  now  on  needed  public  works  or  improvements 
in  order  to  absorb  some  of  the  unemployed,  rather  than  postponing  them  to  a  future 
date.    The  precautions  necessary  are  these : 

1.  Be  sure  that  these  public  works  are  of  a  sort  that  will  be  of  permanent  value 
to  the  community. 

2.  Let  the  work  be  for  citizens  of  the  city  primarily  and  advertise  this  fact  widely 
and  emphatically  or  men  will  flock  in  from  all  points  of  the  compass  again  and  so 
clog  the  machinery  as  to  cause  defeat  of  the  very  purpose  for  which  the  emergency 
work  is  being  undertaken. 

3.  Let  the  pay  of  the  men  be  at  standard  rates  for  the  various  kinds  of  work  done. 

4.  Let  ability  of  the  man  to  do  the  job  available  be  the  first  consideration  in 
employing  him — not  his  need  of  an  income.     This  can  be  the  second  consideration. 
If  two  men  of  equal  ability  are  applying  for  a  specified  job,  then,  of  course,  take  the 
local  man  who  has  a  family  dependent  upon  him. 


REPORT   ON   PROBLEM    OF    UNEMPLOYMENT.  73 


APPENDIX  I. 

Report  on  Plan  of  Temporary  Relief  by  Committee  on  Temporary  Relief  for 
Unemployed  in  Cities,  Section  on  Unemployment,  Commonwealth  Club  of 
California. 

(Page  677.) 

To  the  Section  on  Unemployment:  Your  Committee  upon  Plan  of  Temporary 
Relief  reports  that  after  consideration  of  the  conditions  of  the  problem  found  in 
S;m  Francisco,  it  recommends  that  the  relief  work  should  be  handled  in  the  following 
manner : 

I-' iriit .  That  there  should  be  a  registration  of  the  unemployed  under  the  following 
classes : 

(a)  Residents  with  dependents. 

(5)  Residents  without  dependents, 

(c)  Transients. 

NirojK/.  That  committees  should  be  organized  to  cover  the  following  details  of 
the  work  : 

(1)  Raising  money. 

(2)  Food  supply. 

(3)  Shelter. 

(4)  Clothing. 

(5t    Kinds  of  work  at  which  the  unemployed  may  be  put. 
(0)    Legislation,  with  such  further  committees  as  experience  may  show  to  be 
advisable. 

It  is  recommended  that  class  (a),  residents  with  dependents,  shall  be  paid  a 
wage  large  enough  to  enable  each  to  provide  food  for  his  family  and  not  large 
enough  to  attract  men  from  other  employments  or  from  other  communities.  The 
Committee  would  also  advise  that  special  provision  be  made  for  those  with  a  large 
number  of  dependents. 

It  is  advised  that  class  (c),  transients,  should  not  be  paid  any  monetary  compen- 
sation, but  should  be  given  food,  clothing  and  shelter,  in  return  for  an  amount  of 
labor  equivalent  to  three  hours  in  the  woodyard. 

Class  (6),  residents  without  dependents,  should  receive  food,  clothing  and  shelter 
on  the  same  terms  as  class  (c),  but  be  given  the  first  opportunity  for  additional 
i-inployment  at  monetary  compensation,  should  such  be  found. 

To  carry  out  the  recommendations  of  this  committee,  invitations  were  extended  to 
a  thoroughly  representative  body  of  citizens  to  meet  for  the  purpose  of  organization. 
The  invitation  met  with  a  hearty  response,  an  organization  was  perfected,  the  recom- 
mendations of  the  Commonwealth  Club's  Committee  on  Temporary  Relief  were 
placed  before  the  body  and  were  accepted  and  adopted,  the  only  modification  made 
being  in  the  number  of  committees.  The  acceptance  of  the  recommendations,  and 
the  formation  of  a  working  committee  of  representative  citizens  to  carry  them  out, 
relieves  the  Club  of  further  action  in  the  matter  of  temporary  relief  for  local  condi- 
tions, excepting  that  some  of  its  members  are  included  in  the  citizen's  committee. 


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